One in three….

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…