Tonga Day Update

Two major events in Tonga on past 4ths of June – independence in 1970 and the abolition of serfdom in 1862. What will they do for the hat trick?

There has only been a small amount of action on course since the last update. Our chums down the road at Plumpton lost their Ladies’ Day meeting to concerns over proximity of a case of equine flu, but were able to replace it with an evening-ish meeting in late May. We had two runners. YASMINA ran a decent race, finishing fourth after having every chance at the second last. It was quite a competitive little race and she emerged with honour intact, even though she teased us with the possibility of achieving more.

Earlier on the card we had a much more stressful experience when EVERYONESGAME was beaten a neck in the conditional jockeys’ series final. That in itself would be frustrating but the winner came across him and put him into the rails on the home turn (meaning that Chad had to snatch up to avoid a worse incident) and in the inevitable steward’s enquiry there was every reason to hope that the race would be awarded our way. However, the panel decided that a much lesser bump that Everyonesgame had dished out leaving the back straight was equal to the one he received. So in the end a storming effort by the horse and disappointment for us.

That might be both the beginning and the end for our summer jumps season. Everyonesgame lost a lot of weight after the race, so will have a bit of a break to build up again, by which time the July programme has a lack of suitable races for him, and it is followed by the much reduced August fixture list will be upon us – so we are looking at September. Of our other potential summer jumpers, Yasmina has been on the go for quite a while and needs a break, Somkiyr looks much more at home on the flat and Tropical Speed is injured. We do have Back Before Dark to work on the flat, so it will not be a total summer shut down.