St Conrad’s Day Update

That would be St Conrad of Piacenza, and not any of the other nine St Conrads. Since the last update we had a disappointment at Plumpton when BIRDMAN BOB unseated at the third last and dumped Philip as he saved himself. How non-team spirited, but it was one of those mistakes where the horse stepped at the hurdle and if he fails to instantly adjust, the jockey is left travelling forwards rather faster than the horse underneath him. What made it properly annoying is that the pair had made very sweet progress in the back straight and were bang in contention for the win. Prior to that GODOT failed to stay three miles on soft ground at Kempton, and jumped left when he got tired, which is especially non-ideal at Kempton. We will probably give him another try at the distance but on better ground. And on the day of publishing, EKLIL ran another good race at Lingfield, beaten only a couple of lengths again. Having been slightly sluggish at the break (from a bad draw) he got stuck towards the back and Jack had to roust Eklil along from further out than ideal and in the end he got the worst of a blanket finish. He certainly has the capacity to win again on the flat when things pan out more conveniently for him, and Jack’s feedback was not to worry about dropping slightly in distance if the right race came along. The good news from the day is that GOLD CLAREMONT beat the ballot for the Eider Chase at Newcastle (St Conrad looking out for us?) and the ground should be right up her street, as long as the weather is not so bad that the meeting is lost. It is not just for the races themselves that perfection balances on a razor’s edge…