Talking Horses

I've had some funny dreams recently. The best one happened a few weeks ago, when I rode Chief Dan George in the Grand National. We flew round the course and finished second - which was a pretty good training performance by Jimmy Moffat, especially when you consider that the horse has been in retirement for the past five years and was carrying 12 st 7lb (okay, 13st 7lb), no saddle and a jockey wearing stripy pyjamas.

To tell you the truth, I was a bit disappointed when I woke, because it would have been nice to have won the race for Jimmy, but I dare say he'll have plenty of opportunities during the next week. Having run away with the award for the top trainer at Cartmel last season, Jimmy is raring to go again and has a hat full of entries for the races on Saturday, Bank Holiday Monday and Wednesday.

Unlike my dream, the weekly tips have become a bit of a nightmare recently. I shouldn't really burden any of the Pit Farm team with my selection, but I'm going to anyway - because I had another interesting dream last night.

I was talking to the horses at Pit Farm Stables which was really strange - because there were quite a few that I didn't recognise. It turns out that Jimmy bought some at the sales recently - especially with Cartmel’s Summer season in mind. One of them asked me about getting some tickets for the Simply Red Raceday on Saturday. "Who are you I asked?" 

That was when all the horses started singing, "If yoooo don't know me by now, you'll never never know..."

Anyway, it turned out that the horse I’d been speaking to was called Mondlicht  - and he belongs to a syndicate that was formed by a group of keen Cartmel racegoers at the end of last season, just after Jimmy had been crowned as our top trainer. He has a choice of engagements, but I hope he’ll win for his enthusiastic owners on Saturday.

So, wanting to be helpful I replied, "We've got a few tickets left, but the advance booking service has now closed, so you'll have to buy them on the gate. We'll be limiting the number of horses that are allowed in - so I suggest that you to arrive early, in case we sell out later on in the day.” 

Good advice for everyone – including, with a bit of luck, this week’s selection.