Literary License

April is the cruellest month, according to T.S. Eliot and Chaucer before him, but I beg to differ. I nominate March for that honor.

The month after the Cagnes winter season but before things really gear up for the main flat season, March is a tough one. The horses who have raced down south come home in varying states, some the better for it but all of them needing a bit of recovery time after working hard on the Riveria. New horses have come in, but they’re not ready for prime time and after having quite a successful time down south, it’s hard to digest a month of poor results, even if we haven’t run our best horses or had the best choice of entries. The weather doesn’t help. One minute spring is here, the sun is out and the rugs come off, and ten minutes later nature smacks you with a reality check and a frost. We end up having to change the horses’ clothes three times a day, alternating between nudity and parkas.

But April holds promise. The leaves are budding, opening day at Longchamp is right around the corner and our two-year-olds are starting to learn about speed. Most of our horses are starting to come into their coats and we have a far better choice of racing coming up in April than we had in March. We’re not over the hump with everybody – we still have some problems to solve before we’ll put our best foot forward. But there is some good racing coming up. King Driver will be back on track next week, I hope. He was ready to race 10 days ago but I had to pull him out at the last minute because he was entered in a divided handicap and would have fallen on the impossible side of the split. He’s ready to go, and will run at St. Cloud on April 8. Ray of Hope should come on from his last race and will go to Longchamp, either on April 6 or 13. Melrand is looking great and will run in a claimer in Compiegne before moving on to another handicap (assuming no one buys her, but we will do our best to defend). Eternal Gift will go to Longchamp for two races this month, as will Charlie, who I think will finally start paying his way.

We have other horses who are progressing but will need a race. New recruits Gut Instinct and April Rose will go out to the country on April 13 to see what’s under the hood before we tackle something harder. Greatest will go, too, in the hopes of finally finding the winner’s circle. He is so impressive in the morning but has been far less than impressive in the afternoon. I don’t know why, but hopefully we can turn the corner with him.

And of course hope springs eternal with unraced two-year-olds. Our American Post colt is looking very impressive, but he’s a big horse and might take a bit of time, although he seems to be growing before my eyes. He won’t be ready before June, I think, but he will be an interesting one to watch. Our filly, meanwhile, Risk Well Taken, should be a bit more precocious. She’s small but already well-developed, and if her character doesn’t get in the way, she could have some talent.

We’re not wasting time in April. Ducati will start us off tomorrow in Argentan, and he should have a good chance. He is only here on loan, so he’ll probably head back to Belgium soon, but he’s been a fun horse to have around. Then we’ll follow up with Melrand on Saturday. And then we’ll have put March behind us, and prove T.S. Eliot wrong.