Going La La (25th February)

Admittedly, I have pushed my luck trying to avoid this bloody coronavirus the past year with travelling to work on public transport and shopping each weekend, but despite being extra careful It was pretty obvious when I came down with aches and pains for no reason on Saturday I was doomed. Because of this, it’s ten days in the slammer for me. 

Isolation.

To clarify, I'm not on my way to Her Majesty's prison but for most parts of my isolation period I will be having three meals a day cooked and brought up to me by my wonderful wife while stuck in my bedroom climbing the walls going crazy. 

First and foremost I have to try to avoid contact with my family and hope they don’t catch it. A vital factor in getting this virus under control is doing the right thing. In my opinion, sticking to the rules. If that means lying on my bed, writing a blog, so be it. One other downside is I'm starting to resemble a homeless person and look forward to a bath, shave and haircut the day I'm released. 

Now as you are aware I do love studying and watching horse racing but it's pretty hard to focus and concentrate when you're aching from head to toe, but I did manage to watch the magnificent Frankel and Henry Cecil documentary which brought a tear to my eye and if you still haven’t seen it yet it’s a must for any racing fan. 

Without a doubt I will be bored shitless the next week or so. 

So what to do while self isolating? 

I did manage to watch some horse racing on television over the weekend and it turned out to be a pretty horrific few days with four fatalities including the talented David Bridgewater gelding The Conditional. It was a terrible weekend for all involved and hopefully we won't be talking about the same topic in three weeks when Cheltenham comes around. Social media has been a lot less forgiving with abuse flying everywhere on why this happened, I don’t get involved in all the dramas but with everything going on in the world right now we need to stick together and get some positive messages and thoughts out there. 

I did see a couple of positive stories over the weekend, well I said positive, but one was absolutely ridiculous when Iron man (pardon the pun) Hugh Morgan's right stirrup broke after the first fence, but he still miraculously managed to win on board Young Dev at Naas in what well could be ride of the year done and dusted already. 

Another story was the brilliant John Gosden trained colt Mishriff who won the world’s richest race last Saturday. The Saudi Cup is worth a cool $20million and jockey David Egan showed again what an immense talent he is by timing his run on the 4-year-old to perfection.

Not to blow my own trumpet but I have been pretty pleased with the trainers and owners who have contributed so far to this season's blog. If you haven’t checked my recent Qatar Racing, Quantum Leap Racing and George Scott posts you would be advised to do so as they are all interesting and informative pieces which will stand you in good stead for the season ahead. I still have a couple of beauties up my sleeve but won’t mention them until finalized. 

Following on from my previous posts about newcomers with nice pedigrees I will mention another who will hopefully make her mark this season. 

Trainer George Boughey had a promising first season last year since being granted his training licence in July 2019. George is no stranger to training horses having learnt his trade as assistant to the brilliant Hugo Palmer for six years. Having said that 2020 was no normal year with coronavirus playing havoc and upsetting the whole world, taking this into account George done a phenomenal job managing to train a handful of two-year-old winners including the Mirage Mac who won her first three races in what was a lovely first season for the 22,000 gns purchase who is owned by Mr Adrian McAlpine. 

UNNAMED filly by Showcasing out of Bird Key and trained by George Boughey. Taking a look through the Tatts Book 1 October Yearling Sales George purchased what could hopefully be a nice filly for this season, as I said last time a nice pedigree is not a given that it will produce winners but the signs are good if you take a look at mare Bird Keys other offspring. 

This Unnamed Showcasing bay filly was purchased for 140,000 gns and is a full-sister to Tasleet who was trained by William Haggas who raced six times as a 2-year-old and won three, also finished runner-up in the Group 2 Richmond Stakes and the Tattersall Group 3 Stakes then trained on to be nice type for Haggas and Mr Al Maktoum, now stands stud at Nunnery Stud. Another offspring worth mentioning is Lady Light who is trained by Michael Bell and owned by China Horse Club. Lady Light was purchased for 220,000 gns as a foal and sold on to China Horse Club International for 850,000 euros. Lady Light has only raced twice when winning first timeout then coming third in the Listed Bosra Sham Fillies Stakes at Newmarket in 2019. I will be disappointed if the Showcasing filly can't get a win this season. 

Thanks for reading and as I have been watching nothing but Hill Street Blues all I will say is “Let’s be careful out there”.