Borivoj II Day Update
Yes, it is the 900th anniversary of the death of Borivoj II. He is of interest because his predecessor and successor were the same man, Vladislaus I, but his father was Vladislaus II. However you look at it, this does not make much sense.
Our first runners back after the run of abandonments were on another weekend trip to Fakenham. The upside was an excellent effort by the evergreen SHAW’S CROSS, who finished fourth, with his stamina being found out and costing him at least one, maybe two places. His enthusiasm was a good as ever and we liked everything else about the run. Borivoj II would have approved. The rest of the afternoon flirted with disaster. EKLIL burst a blood vessel, something that he did on his hurdles debut but we thought that we had subsequently fixed that problem. SUZY WOOD took a worryingly heavy fall over hurdles, but fortunately turned out to be no more than badly winded, although taking a long time before she got to her feet. She also had a bad bruise on one of her legs, so she will have a easy time of it in the immediate future, just to stop the experience stressing her more than necessary. A week later GOLD CLERMONT put in a disappointing run at Fontwell.
The search for consolation tried to take us to Huntingdon but was foiled when FLEMEN’S TIPPLE failed to make the cut by one, thanks to one of the less common side effects of the ballot rules – the main problem was that with a maximum of 84 runners, the meeting had 140 declared. The ballot rule concerned was devised by the same person who numbers Dukes of Bohemia. CLONDAW ROBIN was the next try, but the oppo just ran him off of his feet at Plumpton with a daft early pace. He stuck at the job for fourth because he knows that if he does not work hard at our two most local courses, we might be tempted to look for a race slightly further afield.
Things finally took an upturn at Lingfield. SHAW’S CROSS (again) ran another blinder, nosing ahead two fences from home but failing to quite see out the 2m 3½f trip on heavy ground. Slightly shorter or slightly less testing and who knows how close he might have been? Half an hour later GODOT finished second over hurdles. Although he acts on soft, history shows that proper heavy ground is a bit too much for him, and had the morning rain stayed away, there is a chance that he could have gone one better – although the winner did come over as extremely well handicapped, so maybe less mud would not have been a difference maker. In the circumstances it was an excellent run.