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The storms were circling Maisons-Laffitte just as I went over to feed breakfast; by the time we would normally take out first lot the lightening and thunder had moved in and rain hung over the yard. We waited, and in about 45 minutes the storm had moved through. It wasn’t enough. The air was still thick and heavy, but it would be further scrubbed by afternoon showers. This summer in France reminds me of those we used to have growing up in Wisconsin. Hot and heavy, punctuated by thunderstorms. Afternoons that seemed to last forever and yet speed by. The horses aren’t happy with it, but this summer has made me feel like I’m 16 again – OK, maybe not quite. I certainly don’t have the energy level – or the alcohol tolerance – of those days. But still. I could use at least another six months of this.

But the horses wouldn’t appreciate it. I am having to choose our entries wisely, because some horses are tolerating this better than others. Rapsodie is a little gray mare who is very light and has almost an Arabian head. Not surprisingly, she is standing up to the weather the best. The heavier horses are struggling. Big Brazil (now her formal name of Little Brazilien is quite comical) sweats like a fat girl, even though she really isn’t fat, just huge in every other way. Rose of Egypte would wilt if she lived in the country for which she was named. She’s a huge filly, and she is still too fat, although getting slimmer. Hard Way and Turfani are taking it stoically, and Timelord and George don’t seem too bothered, either. Skid hates it, and has been clearly much happier since we moved him to a cooler box about 10 days ago. Shuffles is too busy worrying about where his second testicle is to worry about the heat. I’m watching for it, too, because the minute it shows itself I’m going to have it removed, along with its partner. If there’s no sign by this winter I’m afraid we’ll have to go looking for it. Piccolo doesn’t care too much about the weather, either, because she’s still busy scoping out the place and deciding on a restaurant rating.

Despite the heat, the dogs still want their grand tour of the gallops every evening. Coco plays in the sprinklers and Prof knows the two strategically placed water holes that are just his size for wallowing. While Coco has youth on her side, Prof spends all day resting up for his big moment. The biggest decision of the day for him is whether to sleep on the couch or the bed. When I leave the fan on, the bed wins, especially since Coco is strangely afraid of the fan and refuses to go into the bedroom when it’s on. Instead, she goes outside and lays in what used to be the tomato bed before she dug it up. That way, she can bark at people, cars or horses passing in the street without having to actually get up. She will still make the effort to charge the fence at passing dogs, though. She is as afraid of other dogs as she is of the fan, but the fence gives her courage.

This lazy rhythm continues through Thursday; on Friday, Timelord goes to Chantilly. Next week, Turfani is entered in Chateaubriant on Monday, Hard Way in Vichy on Tuesday and Brazil in Dieppe on Wednesday. I’m not sure I’ll take Hard Way down to Vichy, because I think the trip may take too much out of him in the heat. But Brazil and Turfani are more likely to run. It all depends on the weather.

Rapsodie du Desert confirmed her good St. Cloud performance in Deauville yesterday, running third and getting beat just a half length in a handicap. She lost second by the smallest of nostrils, while the winner came too quick on the outside. She fought on well, and showed that St. Cloud wasn’t just a flash in the pan and that she can be useful in this category. Skid and George (Email Exit) also ran well but were in too tough company. Skid was in a lady jockey’s race and just didn’t have the kick to finish at 1,500 meters. The distance might have  been about 100 meters too long for him. He was strangely calm for all of the proceedings; he didn’t sweat up behind the gate, and even jumped out a bit slowly – which I prefer to the nervous bolting off he’s shown us up until now. All in all it was a good lesson for him and an easy race (lady jockey/caveliere races usually are). He will probably run one more for us before heading down south to join David Henderson’s yard, where he can be turned out to help his dust allergies. George, meanwhile, ran very well in much, much tougher company than he found in his claimer at Longchamp. I was hoping for a fourth, but we missed that by a length. He has grown out quite a bit physically since Longchamp, and Mathias Sautjeau, who rode him in both races, was very happy with him. He was well into his stride, relaxed in his breathing and tried hard to close in the stretch. He will now drop down in category to a small handicap or claimer and he should definitely make money there. All three came home well.

Meanwhile, we welcome the latest addition to the yard, Piccolo Blue, a three-year-old Piccolo filly I bought at the sales. She is the full sister to Pickett, a nice Group 3-placed sprinter who also won in Hong Kong, and to Armstrong, who has won in Greece. She has run three time in England, badly, but she is nicely built and I think I can do something with her here. In any case, she fits the pattern: She has a nice paper and is physically correct, and I only paid 1,200 guineas for her. I’m hoping she follows the path of Turfani and the others that have come through the Newmarket sale. Watch this space…

The three potential runners for Saturday will work tomorrow, along with Brazil, Rose and Hard Way, who have later entries. Rapsodie du Desert is entered in a handicap at Deauville, along with Skid Solo in the lady jockey’s race and Email Exit (George) in a maiden. George and Rapsodie are almost sure to run; still deciding on Skid.

After that, I’m off to Newmarket for the summer sale and racing. There are always bargains to be had, so if anyone out there is interested in a horse, now is the time. The two best deals out of the Newmarket sales are Turfani, bought for about 1,000 euros and has since won 19,300 euros, and Timelord, bought for about the same price and now up to 7,300. Those are exceptions, of course, but there’s always more where that came from…

One of the hardest parts of my job is to have to accept the fact that weeks or months of work can be ruined with one split-second bad judgment by a jockey. Turfani should have had a good chance at Longchamp today, but Mathias panicked and the poor horse got screwed. Turfani normally runs with the leaders, but today she was a bit late on the jump leaving the gate. Instead of letting her find her action and then see how the race unfolded, Mathias rode her forward to try to take back a place up front. Big mistake. The minute Turfani was asked, she took the bit and jumped into the lead next to another horse and pulled like a train. He decided to let her go, thinking she might relax in front. Second mistake. She didn’t, and every time he tried to slow the pace she swished her tale and went faster. Needless to say, she was overtaken in the stretch and finished nowhere. Bad lesson and wasted race. She is a lovely, generous horse, and shouldn’t have been ridden that way. The one good thing about it: To his credit, Mathias admitted he screwed up. That is very, very rare in a jockey, and I did appreciate that.

Versaki, on the other hand, just doesn’t want to put in the effort now. He needs a break, and he will get one.

Turfani and Versaki run at Longchamp tomorrow; Versaki in a 1,400-meter claimer and Turfani in the second half of the Tierce handicap. We’re not sure what to expect from Versaki any more, but he is dropping way down in class here and it is an easy lot. He certainly has the ability, but he’ll decide whether he wants to use it. We have Greg Benoist back up, which should be a plus – Greg has done the best job with him so far, and we haven’t been able to get him recently because of his other commitments. Turfani is in super form, and should run well. Mathias Sautjeau is back up after doing a good job with her at St. Cloud. But her race is quite tough and she’ll have to work hard. I had a back-up entry for her at Compiegne on Monday, which would have, in hindsight, been a much easier race for the same amount of money. But I have had much better luck at Longchamp than at Compiegne, so I didn’t pay much attention to that entry once I was sure we’d get in to Longchamp. That was a mistake, I’m afraid, because she would have had a good chance to win in Compiegne. I will study the entries better next time and hope she forgives me for having to run her heart out tomorrow.

After that, it’s off to the sales at Newmarket next week. This sale is one of two there every year I never miss, because there are bargains to be had. I don’t have anything particular to buy this time around, but I can’t stay away. If anybody wants to send me their list, I’ll be there.

So last night I’m doing night stable quite late, because I got stuck at the St. Cloud sales longer than I had planned (thanks to my visiting Irishman getting comfy in the bar, but that’s another story…) and I’m still doing my boxes around 8 p.m. It’s light so late in summer these days it’s easy to lose track of time. So I’m picking out George’s box and I hear a mighty clatter in the street – two loose thoroughbreds, saddled, were careening up the pavement at full gallop. Valerie, my exercise rider, goes to help with the roundup. She comes back an hour later with the news: Horses caught, luckily no obvious injuries. So what happened? A trainer’s 12-year-old daughter decided to impress her friend by suggesting they saddle up a couple of horses and go for a nice relaxing trail ride. Dad was away, and since night stable had been done (for those who keep regular hours), no one was around to stop them. There are several problems with this, not the least of which is that the friend didn’t really know how to ride a horse, much necessarily a thoroughbred. The best part is that the kids were begging Valerie not to tell anyone. She informed them that people have eyes, and word would get around even if she didn’t say anything (not to mention that the horses were wearing the distinctive blue bridles for which this trainer is known). She advised them to fess up and tell Dad before Dad heard through other means. I don’t know the end of this story, but I wouldn’t want to be the kids. Or the owner of the horses that got loose…or the trainer who had to tell the owner what happened. Looking after staff, horses and owners is stressful enough in this business. Thank god I don’t have kids!

On another note, Brazil and Rose got through their races fine at Compiegne on Tuesday. Rose ran like a typically green horse that had never seen a track before, but finished respectably and will come on from this. Brazil’s race was strange for a few reasons. It was an apprentice/young jockey race, and one horse got loose and lapped the track before being caught and eventually declared a non-runner, but not before trying to reseat the jockey twice. When the race finally went off, one horse decided to stay in the stalls. This caused everyone else to think there may be a false start, so the race turned into lots of inexperienced jockeys trying desperately to stop horses that didn’t need or want to be stopped. After about 200 meters they realized there would, indeed, be a horse race today, so they rode on, but it was too late for Brazil, who had no idea what was going on. She finished respectably, and it didn’t do her any harm to be stopped from bolting off in front. She, too, will progress from this and is now ready to try something for real.

Next up: Turfani and Versaki at Longchamp on Saturday.

Rose of Egypte will debut in Compiegne tomorrow, and Little Brazilien will be seeing the track for the first time since last fall. Both will be interesting races to learn from, but I don’t think either one will result in money. Rose is a very big filly, and probably needs more time, but she should get a taste of competition and will do that in a 1,400-meter claiming race. She is one of only two debutants in the 12-runner field. Brazil, meanwhile, also needs to get back in the swing after a long layoff. I wanted to get her moving sooner, but she has just kept growing nonstop since the spring. The joke around the yard is that we’d have to order an extra-large starting gate so her huge back end would fit. Turns out she fits fine, and certainly knows what the gate is about. She rocketed out during training last week, and I suspect she’ll do the same tomorrow. I think she will definitely need this race; she’s still growing and probably won’t really hit her stride until a bit later, but it’s time to get on with it. The heat hasn’t broken, which will continue to weigh on the horses – especially Brazil, because like a lot of big girls, she sweats profusely and doesn’t handle high temperatures particularly well. We’ll do our best to keep both of them cool and collected tomorrow. I expect we’ll be spending quite a lot of time in the showers…

It was a frustrating afternoon in the heat at St. Cloud, with only Timelord coming good out of our three runners. He ran very well and I thought he was nearly going to win it, but just couldn’t get that last half-length. He has made amazing progress considering the problems we’ve had with him, and he will win soon. Rapsodie du Desert got a bit outpaced in the lady riders’ race; she broke from the far outside, but there was too much early pace for her to run with the leaders so our rider tried to tuck her in behind. Rapsodie pulled quite a bit and it was difficult to get her settled, so she ended up running with her nose in the wind on the outside of the pack the whole way around. She fought on gamely in the home stretch, but couldn’t get there and ended up finishing 8th of 14 runners, although only about six lengths behind the winner. She has really made progress though and will win a handicap, but her owners are not the patient type and I don’t think they are willing to keep her in training. Hard Way was the biggest frustration of the day. He ran relaxed and in perfect position lying about fourth or fifth throughout, but got trapped behind a wall of horses in the stretch and couldn’t get out. Christophe Lemaire, who rode him, was not a happy jockey when he got back, because he said the horse could certainly win a race like that. It was Hard Way’s worse finish since June of last year, but it really was just bad luck in running.

The upside: All the horses came back fine, despite the heat (those ice caps really help). And in the middle of it all, I did a little spur-of-the-moment freelance work for my friends at the Abu Dhabi National newspaper, who were interested in the Arabian race. Just like old times, right guys?

Next up: Rose of Egypte debuts at Compiegne on Tuesday, where Little Brazilien will make her first start as a three-year-old – and at a monstrously bigger size than when she last saw a racetrack. Always looking forward…

We’re all set for three runners at St. Cloud tomorrow, and they all have a chance. Timelord will go off the favorite in his claimer, the first race at 2,100 meters. I hate being the favorite – it’s like a jinx. I’ve never been able to win from that spot. We’ll see what we can do tomorrow. Rapsodie du Desert runs in the 7th, a lady amateur rider claimer. She is given a chance by most of the tip sheets. For me, it’s a really hard race to situate, like many of these amateur races are. There are horses there that have been entered purely for the pleasure of the rider, some old soldiers, one that hasn’t run in two years, some old black type…who knows what will happen? All I know is that we’re in the gate next to a horse that likes to take the pace and could win, so all we have to do is follow it, and then try to beat it. The rest shouldn’t matter. Then we have Hard Way in the nightcap, the ninth race at 6 p.m. Strangely, none of the tipsters give him much of a chance, and I think he might be our best shot of the day (but then I’m partial – he’s sort of the yard favorite and so far our biggest earner). He would certainly run better if it wasn’t a million degrees outside and the going was softer, but he always tries and I think he has a chance. He’s on the climb as far as his personal physical form is concerned, so I’m looking forward to seeing him run.

So while most of the serious racegoers will be paying attention so the Group 1 Grand Prix de St. Cloud tomorrow, I’m hoping the undercard belongs to us. Stay tuned.

I have lived in France for what is now the majority of my adult life, and I’ve grown accustomed to the way most things work – or don’t – here. I like living here, and the benefits far outweigh the inconveniences. But some days I do find the French reluctance to embrace progress on certain fronts unbelievably frustrating. The French love paper and they love hand-written letters and documents, which means that they have only been dragged kicking and screaming into the Internet age and still insist on certain levels of antiquity. I have just spent most of my afternoon trapped between two of the most antiquated bureaucracies in the country: France Galop and the National Stud.

Every horse in France must have two documents: one is a sort of  passport that has to go wherever the horse goes. It contains identification information, like the horse’s origins, markings and microchip number, plus a vaccination record. The second is called a “carte de matriculation,” or owner’s card, and it is supposed to be on file with the horse’s owner, and signed over to a new owner every time the horse changes hands. Needless to say, horses sometimes change hands a lot, and the owner’s card often does not keep up. So France Galop came up with a new rule that says every horse has to have an owner’s card on file with the National Stud that matches the owner’s name on the race program before the horse can be cleared to run. Fine. Except that the National Stud refuses to send the owner’s card to any owner that doesn’t have a French mailing address. So I have two dilemmas on my hands: One horse was sold and one horse is new in training and needs to run, and both have foreign owners. France Galop says I have to deal with the National Stud, which answers its phone only during the morning on certain days, meaning that even if I did have the time to spend all morning trying to call them, I’m not likely to get through because everyone else in France is trying, too. The other alternative is to fax a hand-written letter explaining all this to the person in charge there. E-mail will not do, apparently. We also need to send a copy of the receipt of sale for the horse along with the letter. Getting on the Internet and seeing that the horse was sold at public auction is not, apparently, good enough. I’m hopeful that I will, eventually, get the paperwork for these two horses sorted out. Meanwhile, I have to go back to my owners and explain to them the French love of paper…