Turfani raced for the first time since late March today, and got up to nab third in the 20-runner field at St. Cloud. She was only a head-bob away from the win, which is extremely frustrating, but she tried hard. I’ve had to put her on Gastroguard for ulcers and gastritis, and she’s starting to come back to form. She is not allowed to run with Gastroguard in her system, so I have to stop the treatment eight days before racing. She is back on it tonight and I’ll continue until she comes up to another race. I’ll have to be patient before we think about what to do next with her. She is a big lovely mare, but has always had a touchy stomach. She is a wind-sucker, which doesn’t help. But she always tries her best and she deserves to stop racing after this year. She’s five years old now and has a nice paper, so next year I’ll try to find someone to take her as a brood mare. The third-place finish today brings her bank account up to nearly 20,000 euros, which is pretty good for a horse that only cost 1,500 euros at the Horses in Training Sale at Tattersalls. I think she could win a race or two this year if we can keep her stomach happy.
Tomorrow, Skid Solo takes his chance in Maisons-Laffitte. It’s a 1,200-meter condition race, and on paper he should be in the top half of the field. But it’s Skid, so you never know what might happen because he’s so inconsistent. He could win or finish nowhere. We just have to go and find out. I’ve decided to trailer him over to the racecourse rather than walk him down; he seems to really lose his mind when he’s running in Maisons-Laffitte, so I’m hoping if he gets to ride around the park a few times before he gets to the track, he might be fooled into thinking he’s actually traveled to a racecourse somewhere. He’ll also wear ear plugs again in the hope he might be calmer. It worked for him last year and it works for Hard Way, so we’ll try them again.
I just watched the diorama and that was a frustrating loss for Turfani just by a head. I was wondering if you could walk to Maisons-Laffitte if you were running there. We do funny things sometimes to try and fool our horses. In France is there a set time in which you have to be at a racecourse for a race?
We should really be there two hours from post time, but in Maisons-Laffitte I cut it to 1 1/2 and I haven’t had any problem. They don’t let us start-declare the horse until it is actually present at the track, because there have been incidents of horses getting loose on the walk over and running their race in the park. Also, we sometimes won’t get assigned a box when we’re running on the home track, so there’s no sense in getting there too early.