If Looks Could Kill

… they probably will in games without frontiers…

This is a line from a Peter Gabriel song. Many years ago I had an argument with my brother in law about this that ran for several days. I said the line was grammatically incorrect – it should be “if looks could kill they probably would”. He said either was ok. In the end we both wrote essays on the subject – he bought a book on grammar that he said proved his point, but I said it proved mine. The argument was never resolved.

Who is the greatest flat racehorse of modern times? Different people have different opinions, but a reasonable list of contenders might be Sea Bird, Secretariat, Phar Lap and Man O’War. My all time favourite horsey photograph is this one of Secretariat;

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

The four in my list had common characteristics : (i) they were all big with big hearts, and (ii) they were all chestnuts. Secretariat was particularly freaky – his heart was found to weigh 22lb, more than twice as much as the normal racehorse size (9lb) and 4lb heavier than the second biggest heart ever known. There is a ‘big heart’ gene, but it is on the X chromosome and therefore in a colt can only come from its mother – this may explain why Secretariat didn’t have any great sons, but his daughters often appear in the pedigrees of top horses.

I like big strong chestnuts as I think history can repeat itself. The Comic Strip Heroes have got one horse who fits the mould – Cheddar George, who is trained at Manton;

.

.

Physically he is as nice a horse as I’ve ever owned. Whether he can do it on the course remains to be seen.

I had this foal the other day;

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

She’s by Red Clubs out of Baldovina – she was badly knuckled over on her hind legs at birth but she got over that fairly quickly. I think she looks an absolute peach.

I went up to Manor House yesterday for the owner’s open day. The new gallop was finished and it was the first time I had seen it – it looked superb. I couldn’t be more excited than I am about the coming season.