Back in Blighty, and welcomed in by a staggeringly good performance by Marine Boy, who may turn out to be the superstar we have seen on the gallops.
I had two weeks in the Forte Village in Sardinia with the family. It’s a fantastic family resort – loads to do, extremely clean and well run, great food, cheerful friendly staff. Our rooms were a little small as I booked late on, but otherwise no complaints.
On day 1 I lost my glasses by the pool. I assumed that they would turn up sooner or later, but they didn’t. I didn’t have a spare pair so I went without for the whole holiday and I still don’t have any as I write.
I had a stroke of good fortune on day 2 when I lost my Blackberry. Again I assumed it would turn up, and it did – four days later we found it lodged inside Eddie’s life jacket, rusted over having been in and out of pools all week.
I got Jeremy to place a few bets for me during the week, including a decent bet on Lilac Moon who obliged again. Other than that I spent very little time on the internet, and I got pretty chilled out.
The children had a great time. The girls played tennis most days and spent a lot of time in the pools. Eddie, who is four, spent a lot of time chatting up older girls. Early on the second day he disappeared for a while, and reappeared coming down a waterslide in the clutches of two stunning Italian teenage girls. He spent the next hour or so with them. In the second week he repeated the feat with a couple of Swedish blondes. I was dumbfounded.
I’d had enough of sun sea and sand and was glad to be coming home on Sunday. Our plane was coming in to land at Gatwick when something went wrong and it pulled violently out of the descent – my heart was in my mouth for a while. There was a problem with the runway. We made a messy landing half an hour later – messy because the plane had to shoot off the runway at high speed as apparently there was still a problem. It was only ten minutes before Marine Boy’s race.
I managed to get off the plane in time to phone my bets through – I rang Mick from the passport queue and got the good news. I’d paid for the holiday before I got through customs, which was a decent performance.
There’s a small possibility that Winker may run in France on the weekend – he’s not entered but could be supplemented. Bouguereau was injured when he got knocked about in his Goodwood race, and will have a (hopefully) small operation tomorrow. All being well he won’t be out for long, although we have to get through the op first. Marine Boy goes for the Gimcrack next, and should be a live contender. Lilac Moon may come out again this week (Haydock on Thursday) and she’s well enough to go in again. Skid Solo comes back from a break, and he’s also in good form.