Sunday 23 November

Well, the forecast cold snap arrived in some style,but at least it stayed dry for our trip to Huntingdon. The Cambridgeshire track is never the warmest of venues - being on the edge of the fens, I think the cold wind blows straight from the Russian Steppes and the stand at Huntingdon is the first structure it hits!! Bloody freezing!! I had taken the radical step of hiring a private box for the afternoon so that the members of Nick Brown Racing could at least get a bit warmer during the afternoon. I must say, it was a very much appreciated and well used both during and after racing, and we were very well looked after by the staff on hand in the box, and the folks running around behind the scenes to make sure that we had all that we needed, it is something I would definitely do again if the price was right. The Club members were royally spoilt, and all had a very good afternoon. Kikos looked amazing in the paddock, and once again 'Alice' won Best Turned Out! Well done to her, and it is a testament to the hard work of Mrs Robeson and her team that all the horses are getting to the races looking a million dollars, and winning theses prizes for their hard working lasses, the girls deserve lots of praise.I have lost count of the number of Best Turned Outs they have won in the last few months, but it is plenty! Kikos ran another blinder. He jumped for fun, only making a slight mistake 3 out, buy otherwise he was foot perfect and seemed to be making lengths at every obstacle. Sam had said before the race, that if he was travelling and jumping as the race hotted up down the back, then he was not going do disappoint Kikos by taking a pull, but would rather let him bowl on and continue to enjoy himself and hopefully gallop all the way to the line. Nearly worked! Pulling about 3 lengths clear turning in, he looked to have it in the bag, but By George from the Nick Gifford yard who had so nearly come down along the back was rallying, and with his quirky head carriage and obvious attitude, joined our chap as they jumped the last. By George obviously has a lot of talent, as despite not looking at all genuine he still managed to get his head in front of our boy on the line. It was a brave performance from Kikos who was in front for a long time and cut out plenty of the donkey work, he gave his all, and we can ask no more than that, and it will be interesting to see where they go next with By George, as they seem to think he may be a class above this grade, and time may just tell that we have been done by a good one. We shall see. A great afternoon nonetheless.I am getting so tired of writing about being second, I have just looked up the yard stats for the season and they make interesting reading - from 32 runs there have been 3 wins (9%) 8 seconds (25%) three thirds and 2 fourth places. This means that over 33% of the yards runners have finished first or second, and over 50% have been in the first four. By any standards a very good season, but it would be nice to have turned a few of the seconds into winners!!