Versaki goes, Skid waits

Versaki will go ahead to Chantilly on Tuesday, but Skid Solo will wait for a slightly easier comeback race. He would have been in the bottom weights of the Tierce race, and while those are always tough, this one looks particularly tough because of the risk of running against three black-type horses. Since he hasn’t raced since last year, I don’t want to over-face him first time out. We will instead wait until next week for a 1,400-meter claimer at Longchamp; I hope we get in, because there will be plenty of entries, but it should be an easier race for him, even though he will carry a price of 34,000 euros. I’m also curious how he would do on the Longchamp “toboggan” course. It’s practically a straight line, but there are two elbow-like bends and some horses specialize on that course. So while 1,400 meters is about a furlong longer than his ideal distance, I think he will like the course.

DerringBay, meanwhile, is on track to be my first international runner at the annual race meet in Guernsey on May 3. It has been a nightmare of papers, visas and – horrors – faxing documents back and forth, but it seems we now have it sorted. Last step is to fax his start declaration on Monday. (I have steadfastly resisted in owning a fax, thinking that the Internet and email should be more than enough, but it appears I am wrong.)

Hard Way is also on track for a race May 3, but in Chantilly. Since I can’t be in two places, Valerie will handle the formalities there, although we may have to bring in extra hands if he decides to light up the presentation ring like he did at Longchamp.

And on a completely unrelated note, the planes are back – and I have found a fascinating site called virtual radar  that allows you to play air-traffic controller and actually identify all the aircraft (and there are way more than I realized) flying over at any given time. So I can sit at my blog, hear a plane, click and find out where it’s coming from. Technology has come this far, and I find I’m still out of the loop if I don’t have a fax machine. Seems unfair.