Back to work. What a laugh. We work every day, every weekend. Mondays don’t really change anything. A little more office work, paperwork, grunt work. Regrouping from the previous weekend, resetting for the next one. Riverdee entered four at Montpelier and Pennsylvania Hunt Cup.
Winless over the weekend. Just two runners. Welshman ran hard in the Grade 2 William H. Allison, wound up fourth, beaten about 2 lengths. No excuses, sure, a few things we would have liked to gone smoother but that’s the game we play. Queens Empire ran in fits and starts in the fits-and-starts International Gold Cup, winding up fifth beaten a long way. The 8-year-old earned his 24th check in his 25th start over jumps.
An ugly, messy race as the field of seven went off course early, circled and went again. The best horse, Keys Discount, still won the race but it was anything but the best race. Funny old place, jockeys consistently go off course on the hurdle, steeplethon and timber courses at Great Meadow. Different jockeys, different spots, most years. Hard to fix or it would have been fixed. Yesterday’s Gold Cup put a bit of a taint on a strong card of races and the first step in Great Meadow’s resurgence after a rough patch in the spring and fall. We should have been awed by Keys Discount, 5-for-5 this year, instead we were confused.
