At last Ravara Superted won his first 138cm pony race at Bratton Down. The children managed to beat the worst of the weather and two really good races kept the crowd on their toes. The only downside of this meeting is the early start. With the point to point off at 1pm, the first pony race was at 11.45am and it really means an early start for some.
We left at 8am - with Lawrence left behind as the mare, who was due to foal any day, suddenly started to run some milk - so Pippa and I were on our own. We managed to get hold of Caroline Furze en route who, thank goodness, was able to help and, together with Jill Gratton, we managed to juggle a pony race runner and point to point runner with only one race in between.
Anyway, after a great battle with Hannah Welch and Bronze Lawrance, Pippa got Ted's head in front to win by half a length - and not only was dad not there to see it but Alan Walter who part owns the pony also wasn't there due to the Cheltenham bloodstock sale. Luckily Jane Walter was there and thank goodness for Jeff Guyett and his DVDs!! Thanks also to 'surrogate granny' Ann Watts who acted as general horse and rug holder in the paddock!
Storm ran his heart out in a good open race, unfortunately the ground went against us as not only were their some pretty stiff showers early on, during the time the horses were in the paddock it chucked it down and during the race it turned to hail. We didn't have the worst of it but he would have preferred the fast side of good!! He was second to Tonic du Charmil thanks to a great ride from Richard Woollacott, and back to his best, while Caroline and I were soaked to the skin and didn't really look back to our best! We celebrated the results with champagne, stood outside the trailer in the hail! Lovely.
Rosie had her foal on Sunday night - I fed her at 11pm and assured Lawrence that, as she was happily tucking in, she wasn't likely to foal - an hour later she had a filly foal that was already up and about. She is by Weld and very pretty. There is quite a large Weld crop in Devon this year so point to pointing in five year's time should be fun!