Beautiful morning at Epsom. Seeing the Derby course, the rise, the fall, Tattenham Corner and all its glory. Horses and riders. Dogs and pedestrians. In glorious sunshine. The long-time viewer, first-time visitor point of view. What a place.
Beautiful afternoon at Sandown. The same sunshine – a rarity – and another stunning venue. I had been there before so not quite the initial awe of Epsom. The rise, the fall, the Railway Fences, the natural amphitheatre. Some place.
We watched Imarajan from a table inside, a bottle of champagne in celebration of Desert Cop’s exploits the night before. We didn’t pop another one after Imarajan but we also didn’t throw the existing bottle on the ground. Our Irish-based 4-year-old traveled strongly, jumped accurately (bar a mistake at the third-to-last) before getting tired and finishing fifth. Soft ground had turned heavy and proved to be laborious work for our flat-bred youngster.
“I was very pleased. The ground was horrible, he ran a good race. He was in contention when he should have been. All in all, he jumped well, made a slight mistake at the third-to-last, probably just from going for a long one, in hindsight, maybe sitting still and popping it would have been better but he was always going to get found out with the ground up the straight the second time around,” co-trainer Eddie Harty said. “He was the only 4-year-old in the race that made any fist of it whatsoever. I’d be happy going forward. The last day he jumped brilliantly until the cutting edge point of the race and backed off at the last two when you almost would have said he had a winning chance in the race. Today he’s traveled well but the ground was always going to be a hard one to overcome. Those National Hunt horses could plow through that mud.”
A solid effort, another step on his path. We are patient owners playing the long game.
Off to Twickenham.
