Winning Post

Storm wins!

Well at long last Lisheen Storm won! I drove down to Great Trethew on Saturday afternoon to walk the course as we had such a lot of rain. IT was blowing a hooley (the loos had blown over) and I thought that if we had the heavy rain forecast over night that it couldn't possibly be on. It was wet, wet and wet. When I got home we had such a downpour that the yard looked like a swimming pool! Anyway the next morning we rang Talking Point for the promised update but it wasn't updated by 8.30am. I had to ride out before leaving for the races so in the end rang the secretary to see if they were going ahead. Lawrence was flat out with the cows calving and sheep lambing so I had take the horse down on my own,hoping that Lawrence would get there in time for the race. So I hurriedly packed up all the kit and the horse and drove off never imagining that when I arrived you would be able to walk around even without wellies!! Yes, the ground was still soft but nothing like it had been the night before. Storm had been so well during the week that I told Tim Dennis that the horse had to run whatever! So I didn't even look at the declarations and didn't know what opposition we had until we got into the paddock. Anyway, Storm settled well and then just kept galloping ( I only know because I watched the DVD, I couldn't watch much of it at the time). Everything else ended up struggling and he looked as happy as larry as he galloped all the way to the line. Tim was happy - three winners since he got back after being concussed at the last meeting at Great Trethew - Storm was happy - no Rockwithacaveman to battle with - and we were happy! The only disappointments was that there was no photographer taking the presentation pics and, as my mum is not able to go the races right now, we weren't able to order a pic of 'the moment' for her, and no jockey's memento, just a bottle of sparkling wine which was a shame for Tim (the fizzy stuff didn't last long!). A big thank you is due to Steve Carter who comes and leads up Storm for us which makes a big difference to me on the day. Being an owner/trainer means you get to do all the work all the time so it's nice not to have to lead up. We thought it would be a hat-trick of wins as our great friends Alan and Jane Walter had two horses running, Fleur De Nikos in the ladies and Emergence in the Intermediate. Both mares looked fantastic but Fleur I think must be jinxed. She was beaten in a two runner race (always very difficult to ride in) and then got disqualified as her jockey - Jenny Carr - had missed a marker. Emergence ran extremely well for a youngster on only her third run over fences and was second.