At Newbury, they needed rain and did not get any. At Ayr the opposite was true. When the government told you the country was in the midst of a drought, they lied. Only the south of the country had brown grass; in the north of England and Scotland sit-on mowers were to be heard on a daily basis.

It was a brave call to carry on regardless by the Ayr stewards, especially as some jockeys, at least according to controversy-seeker Matt Chapman, were in favour of calling the all thing off.  I dare say those jockeys with mounts in the big race that needed bog-like conditions were enthusiastic about racing, whereas their colleagues on good ground horses  would have been in favour of an early finish to their working day. Ultimately, the right decision was made, as was changing the running order so that I.T.V. were able to televise both the silver consolation race and the Ayr Gold Cup itself. Again, and I believe the B.H.A. would have been involved in the decision to change the running order, kudos to them for again displaying flexibility.

What was not needed yesterday was the secrecy about what was happening. Usually, when the stewards and jockeys are out on the course trying to decide whether racing can take place, the I.T.V. presenters are kept informed on the state of play. Yesterday they were kept in the dark. Whether this had anything to do with Matt Chapman putting his oar in the water by mingling with the jockeys as deliberations were on-going is anyone's guess. But he annoys me and I can only assume he must annoy others as well.

The person who, in my opinion, came out of yesterday's racing requiring praise heaped upon her is Adele Mulrennen. With Meg Nichols a non-runner yesterday. It may have been explained why she did not appear, though I was not a static viewer yesterday and no doubt missed the reason why. Which gave Adele the task of doing two jobs at once and sailed through the broadcast like the pro she has become. To talk with Ed, to do the paddock analysis and give her thoughts on the runners going down to the start involved long stints of talking. 10 out of ten to her. I doubt if Ed had ever had to rely on one of his colleagues as he did Adele yesterday.

Mr. Ash of Swindon, in a letter in today's Racing Post, makes a justified point about how late the off-times can be. Horses are not machines and occasionally a jockey has no choice but to amble to the start for fear of being run away with. And, as at Goodwood and Newmarket, the starts maybe a long way from the stands and after a six-furlong canter, jockeys like to pull-up and give their mounts a breather. I excuse all that but what I find annoying is when jockeys deliberately wait when the loading process has begun with their mounts as far away from the stalls as they can achieve. With the exception of those horses who need to be loaded last, the loading process could be made quicker, I believe, if the sequence of loading began, for example, in a ten-horse race, stall 1, then stall ten, stall 2, stall 9 and so on and two horses at a time 1 and 10, then 2 and 9 and so on. The only horses that should hang back are those with a ticket to go in late. And when there is a large number of runners, 16 or more, perhaps, the loading should begin five-minutes in advance of the start time, and we should have to learn to live with a race if it is started a minute early due to all the horses being loaded.

I thought it a dull old day for a Saturday yesterday, yet I was cheered by seeing that Copper Knight had won his 20th race and his sixth at Chester. Here is proof that if a horse enjoys his days to the racecourse that retiring him early is not neccesarily a given. Earlier in the season Documenting won as a thirteen-year-old, a year older than Copper Knight. It must be one of the greatest pleasures as a racehorse owner to have a horse like the two mentioned who are happy and sound enough to be racing as equine pensioners. It is not always a kindness to subject a racehorse to a long retirement, even if it is an active retirement, when being a racehorse and enjoying life as a racehorse might be the choice if the horse had a choice in the matter. It is why it is maddening when people who should know better advocate retirement for Constitution Hill when clearly he still has a zest for racing.