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!
Legal alternatives for watching such events as the KD can usually be found on stream listing sites such as myp2p.eu, just in case you’d like to watch it live next year. That’s how I watched after the stream on my ADW site did what it always does, which is to not work. I guess the Preakness will be available too.
It’s incredible that a race like the Kentucky Derby isn’t broadcast in France or Germany, although not as incredible as the fact that the Arc isn’t available for viewers in France’s neighboring country either, not even if the betting site streams would work (French racing still refuses to offer video rights to foreign ADWs).