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It’s been a busy past few days. We went up to Normandy on Saturday to see the newest addition to the stable, a filly born Monday out of Well Done Clare by Konigshuffle. She looks good – tall, leggy and energetic, which is everything you want to see in a newborn. She’s a completely different model than her full brother, Well Shuffled, now a yearling. Well Shuffled is square and small, and has inherited his mother’s considerable backside, which is good, since that’s the engine. The new girl looks like she’ll be tall and elegant, like her father. Theirry, Diana and I are partners on the new filly, so now we need a name. Most of what we like has already been taken, but we might call her “Me First,” which seems like a good name for a racehorse.

On Sunday, I got to introduce a group of Americans to racing at Auteuil racecourse. None of the 16 or so had ever been to a racetrack before, much less to see steeplechasing, and they seemed to enjoy themselves. I’ve got another two groups coming up at Longchamp the next two Sundays. It’s a chance for me to bring new fans to racing, which is nice, and also a chance to see if some of them might like to take the plunge and own a horse.

On the track, I’ve got Cape Tycoon running Friday in Chantilly in a one-mile claimer for gentlemen riders. This one will be for the experience more than anything else. It’s a little close to his last race, but he seems in fine shape and this will be good schooling for him. The distance is probably a little too long, but it will set him up well for a 1,400-meter race at the end of the month.

Turfani is entered for Tuesday at St. Cloud and will run if she gets in. We have 57 entries at the moment, so we’ll have to see how the field thins through the week. Tommy is still on track for his race on the 16th, and Hard Way has to wait, because he is too highly rated to run any of the races I had hoped for. It looks like I’ll have to put him in a condition race at the end of the month in Compiegne.

Oh, and there was the Kentucky Derby. Missed it. But I couldn’t have seen it any way – there seem to be no television rights for the Derby in Europe. I watched the reply on YouTube, though, and that was a hell of a stretch run by Mine That Bird. And what a pair the owner and trainer make – they look like ZZ Top’s bank-robbing cousins!

Tyke has come back from his race in fine shape, and Turfani, Tommy and Hard Way are all ready to go, so now we need the right races. Tyke will be entered in a 1,600-meter (one mile) claimer for gentlemen riders in Chantilly on May 8. It’s longer than I’d like, but there’s nothing for him otherwise before May 20 and I’d like to get him back out sooner than that because he needs the experience. Tommy will have to run the second division of the Tierce handicap at Maisons-Laffitte on May 16. I’d like something easier (and sooner!), but there’s really not much choice for him. I need 2,000 meters on a good grass course, and this fits the bill. Turfani has a couple of nice choices, and she has clearly turned the corner with her liver problem because she’s eating well again and working very well. I’ve altered her diet to get away from the overly sweet Bailey’s racehorse mix. She might run in a claimer at Evreux on May 8, but more likely will wait for St. Cloud on May 12, where she has a nice 2,100-meter claimer.

Hard Way is just about ready to come back, and he’s entered in a handicap on May 8 at Evreux. I’m unlikely to run that race, but I need to see what rating he will be assigned to see whether he qualifies for the race I’d prefer, in Maisons-Laffitte on May 11. He needs to have a rating of 27 or less, and I’ll find out tomorrow what the handicappers at France Galop think of him. When he does run, it will be in new colors, since he’s been leased to Mark Tronco and Steve Collins.

Tyke’s race on Sunday was essentially that: Nineteen of the 20-horse field finished within six lengths of each other. Tyke finished about 10th, at best count. He sat fifth on the rail for most of the race, accelerated two furlongs out, then was blocked and the jockey stopped riding. I don’t think he could have done much in any case; to say there were traffic problems would be an understatement. I would have liked to have taken a check, obviously, but considering he hadn’t run in nearly a year and had never run on turf, it was a respectable debut. The race was pretty quick, with the first 1,000 meters going in 57 seconds.  The jockey said he didn’t breathe very well, but I’m not worried about that, because I know Tyke can close up his airway when he gets stressed. He used to have panic attacks when he first came back into training, but they went away as he gained confidence, and with a few more races under his belt, he’ll start breathing easier. He probably has the speed to go a bit shorter, but there are not many good races for him coming up. I may instead stretch him out to a mile in two weeks, with no expectations he can win, but just to get another race in and help him relax. He came back sound and is eating well after yesterday, so now we can look ahead.

That means we have all three T’s back and racing, just waiting for the right chance to get back out; they should all have races between May 8 and May 15. Hard Way also is almost ready to run his “rentree”, which might be in Maisons Laffitte on May 11. The hardest part now is waiting, working and keeping it all going in the right direction.

Tyke is all set for tomorrow at Longchamp, and if it were a beauty contest, we’d be a front-runner. He looks fantastic, and he seems to be feeling pretty good, too, so now we have to see if he can run as well as he looks. He’s been singing and bucking and wanting to beat up other horses all week, so it’s good we’ve got a race. We’ve got 20 starters and we’re breaking from the No. 5 hole, which is a good spot. Raphael Marchelli will ride; he did good work for us last year with Skid Solo. To say the race is wide open is an understatement: The runners range in age from 4 to 10, with earnings ranging from nothing to 500,000 euros. One horse has run 114 times and another just once. It’s a handicappers nightmare. At the very least, it will be interesting. The promised rain has not appeared, sadly, so I can only hope there’s been enough watering so the track isn’t too hard. In any case, off we go…

Well, Tyke (Cape Tycoon) is start-declared for Longchamp on Sunday. I had a brief scare with a cough over the weekend (the horse, not me, unfortunately), but the vitamin C seems to have helped and he worked well this morning, so I think we’re going to give it a shot. It’s a relatively good-level claimer on a day with three Group races also on the card, and the field looks strong, but it’s time to get on with it and see what’s really under the hood. It will be interesting to see how he is to handle at the track. He clearly had a bad experience in England, having run five races in eight weeks at varying distance on the fibersand when he was clearly backward and not capable. After trailing in last in every race, he was chucked into the sales. We gave him five months off in Normandy, and he came back a different animal. He’s huge now and clearly still growing, but nothing like last year, when he couldn’t trot round the courtyard without landing on his nose. He really has bloomed into a good-looking horse, and he’s really come into himself coordination- and character-wise, so I’m excited to finally see him race. Now (and yes, you’ve heard this before) we need RAIN! It’s been dry and sunny for the past eight days or so, and I really want some cut in the ground for him at Longchamp. Start dancing…

Cape Tycoon is entered for next Sunday at Longchamp, which would be his debut for me. He will gallop tomorrow morning and so far things have been going pretty well. He was coughing a bit on Friday (I assume after he discovered he was entered in a race via the secret broadband connection somewhere in his box) but he’s eating well, has no fever and didn’t cough today, so hopefully it’s nothing to worry about. Just in case, I’ve given him a dose of Vitamin C (which will make him nearly impossible to hang onto tomorrow) and echinacia to bolster his immune system. There’s been a bug going around, and this would be the worst possible time for it to hit.

Tyke has been looking and acting more and more like a racehorse, and he put Skid in  his place today when Skid decided to try to start a fight walking home after exercising. Skid is going through the horse version of the Terrible Twos (even though he’s three) and hasn’t yet figure out that he’s been gelded. So out of the blue he swung around to kick Tyke – who KNOWS what they were talking about between themselves before that – and then backed into him after I stopped his first attempt. Tyke responded with a good whack, catching Skid right in the ribs and missing my hip by milimeters. Skid should know better than to pick a fight with a horse twice his size and racing fit. He’s got a good egg on his side, but all in all everyone was lucky – especially me.

Well, you can’t say she’s not consistent. Turfani ran 6th again today in a field of 14, just out of the money. Today, though, there were plenty of excuses. I had never seen the track at Argentan, and while it is a decent country track, the home stretch is short and flat, nothing like the nice long uphill at Fontainebleau, St. Cloud or Compiegne, which is where we should go next. Plus, she wasn’t 100 percent going into this race, so we’ll change her feed and get her liver issues ironed out before we think about what to do next. All in all, she ran respectably, but didn’t get the chance to put in the nice finishing kick we saw in Fontainebleau. She didn’t blow much after the race, though, so she didn’t overextend herself. We’ll see how she is over the next few days, and I’ll probably pull another blood sample in two weeks or so to see where we are. But I think we can expect better things next time out.

But it looks like Turfani actually has a chance tomorrow. I’ve finally gotten a chance to take a closer look at the rest of the field, and there’s not much there. Paris Turf and various other tip sheets also like our chances.  Plus, it has rained quite a bit in Normandy over the past day, so the going should be fine. The one downside is that her bloodwork came back and it’s not 100 percent what I’d like to see. Turns out she’s definitely not anemic – her red cell count is actually off the high side of the scale, which is terrific news. But she’s slightly bothered in liver enzymes, which confirms what I’d suspected lately: Her diet is too rich. The numbers are not catastrophic, and not enough to think about scratching the horse. But I’ll definitely be taking her off the Baileys and onto Troffy Rouge, which leaves out the sweet additives that Baileys puts in. I like the Baileys a lot for speed horses, but I’ve found that slower-burning types like Turfani sometimes need a little less in the feed bucket. Basically, it’s like she’s been eating the horse version of cassoulet, when she should be eating steak and salad. Needless to say, I’ve stopped the Hematinic and instead am giving her a few doses of Ekyrenal, an extract of plants and artichokes that will help her detox a bit before the race. We’ll also have to see how she handles the trip – it’s a three-hour drive to the race, but she seems to handle the transport fine. Let’s hope it keeps up.

Turfani made the cut for Thursday in Argentan. It’s a 1,950 meter claimer with a full field of 14; she will break from the six hole and Nadege will ride. It’s not a strong field, but it’s a country track with a fairly short home stretch, so she’ll have to be up closer than she was in Fontainebleau if she hopes to take a check. I still think she’s not quite in top form;  and we took a blood sample Saturday and I’ll see the results today. She is working well and seems certainly capable of racing, but I’m sensing she’s just a little under the weather. I started her on Twydil Hematinic on Saturday, giving her an iron and mineral boost going into the race.  If I see anything amiss in the blood analysis, I’ll scratch, but if the numbers are OK, we’ll go ahead. There aren’t all that many races for her at the moment, so I do think we should take a crack at this if we can. I’ll also scratch if we don’t get some of the rain promised into Thursday. I don’t want to risk running her on fast ground, because she’s not solid enough behind. She definitely needs some cut in the turf.

Turfani is start-declared for a claimer in Argentan on Thursday, but there are 26 still in, so we’ll have to wait until tomorrow before we know for sure if we get in. And it needs to rain. Tommy’s leg seems good, and he is back to jumping out of his skin just three days after Longchamp, so I’m looking for a race in about two weeks’ time, but I’m not finding what I want. France Galop gave us a gift by taking three kilos off his handicap after his race, which puts him in a great position if I can find the right race. There’s a 2,000-meter handicap at Fontainebleau with his name written all over it EXCEPT his third place in Deauville, long ago that it was, disqualifies him. I’m afraid we may have to go to Nancy, but that’s a long haul so I might just have to wait for something closer. Tyke gave us a super workout yesterday, one that allows me to declare him ready to go, so he has a race at Longchamp on April 26, all being well with his knees. So we’re all sitting tight, counting the days.