I’m still here!!!

I’m blaming Facebook. And, to a much lesser extent, Twitter. I’ve gotten into the habit of posting short blurbs on all the stable news on Facebook, which is why this blog has laid fallow for so long. So let’s catch up.

The results, recently, have been good. The Deauville winter meeting is the usual horrendous mess of entries, with hundreds of horses entered for every handicap and dozens eliminated. We have had mixed luck getting a run, but the horses who have made the cut have run well. Hard Way was second, again, Magical Flower finally managed to take a check and Grey Falcon surprised us by running a cracker last week. Deep Ocean is sitting on a win, but sitting at home, because he was eliminated and now has to wait until Christmas Eve – and hope we get in. He seems in excellent form and it is getting increasingly difficult to hold onto him in the morning.

Surrey Storm, who we knew as Milly, ran a great second in Lyon in her swan song before going to the breeding stock sales in Deauville on Monday. She is now on her way to Ireland to have foals. We were very sorry to see her go, because she was a very tough little racehorse, but pleased that she should have a bright future as a brood mare. She deserved a break, in any case, after running an absolutely tough season with a win and six places from 15 starts. The little kid ran all over France, and made money at Cagnes sur Mer, Lyon, Lion d’Angers, Vichy and Longchamp. If her offspring are as tough as she is, they will be very interesting to watch.

Our new recruits from the Newmarket sales in October have settled in well. Eternal Gift will debut for us in Deauville on Friday, but we hope to get his handicap mark down before doing anything too serious with him. Our other purchase, Santarini, should run at the end of the month. And Gorki Park is finally going to make his debut, also in Deauville on Friday. The goal for all these horses is Cagnes, and we’ll all head south in mid-January. It can’t come soon enough. The deep freeze has started around Paris, and it’s always a challenge to train when you never know what the gallops will allow you to do from one day to the next. Luckily, everyone is fit and ready to race, so we only have to keep them ticking over on snow days.

Anyway, mea culpa for neglecting my blog for the three of you who still might be checking it. Facebook is evil, as we know, but it is a decent tool for communicating tidbits of yard news. I will try to be better about catching up here, too. All three of you deserve it!