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Photos From The Day

Video of the Race – Goodwood is a Racing UK track so the replay can only be viewed if you are a subscriber.  Their replays can be accessed at www.racinguk.com/video/race-replays.  If you have an online account with Bet365 or Skybet, then you can access the race via their replays at www.bet365.com/extra/en/results-and-archive/racing-archive/ or www.skysports.com/racing/video-form respectively.

There were 10 of us making the trip to Goodwood with myself, Sarah and Cath, joined by Lawrence, Peter & Deborah, Rory and Sally and a BG Racing racecourse debut for Ben & Justine!

The forecast weather was mainly dry with possible light showers, not persistent drizzle with occasional proper rain and the jockeys back from the first race reported that the ground was soft despite the official description.

Neil called at around 2.15pm and then came to find us to discuss the position and given that TWYD has run terribly every time he has encountered soft ground he was advocating withdrawing him and waiting for the races at the back end of next week. Had this been a conversation the day before racing, I would have had no hesitation in agreeing to this, but given that people had already travelled to the course and probably would not find next week so easy to get to, I was in a bit of a quandary. The main aim from today was to find out whether TWYD could race and return sound tomorrow, so after some deliberation and varying opinions on the best course of action, I decided that we should run.

We then almost did not get a run anyway due to the lack of a jockey! Neil had earlier told Robert Winston that we might be withdrawing TWYD. Just before our race Neil was waiting for Robert to weigh out and was horrified to see Robert emerging from the jockeys room in his suit heading for home!

After a very quick change. a very apologetic Robert joined us in the paddock accepting full responsibility for not having checked the position but no harm done. The riding instructions were to ride TWYD to run a good race, but that we were expecting him to hate the ground and not to give him a bad experience if he was not enjoying himself.

The race started in low cloud with difficulty seeing the runners even on the screen and I think TWYD was last early on! It seemed likely that he would fade early as Robert seemed busy on him urging him forward a couple of times but turning for home he was still in touch and as the horses started to battle with the conditions, it was clear that he was actually staying on better than most.

He went 4th, then 3rd and for a moment looked like he might go even better than that but in the end he stayed on resolutely for 3rd well clear of the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th.

I think it was safe to say that this result exceeded expectations given his previous soft ground form and it was a very happy syndicate manager who raced (Exaggerating again – walked briskly and even that had me out of breath!) down to the horse walk to walk back in with the horse. This meant I had a couple of minutes to discuss the race with Robert.

Robert’s opinion was that the ground was not an excuse. He said that he had not loved it, but that you also would not have said that he was hating it. His initial feeling was that TWYD would be better over a longer distance. He reported that TWYD had struggled on downhill sections and then picked up again on uphill sections and had stayed well to the line. Robert’s view was that 1 mile 4 furlongs at somewhere like Beverley with a long uphill finish would be ideal and he also said that he would have no qualms about going over 1 mile 6 furlongs and possibly even beyond.

Back in the winners enclosure we discussed the race with Neil who spoke to everyone with his thoughts. Neil felt that TWYD was very well at home and said that he was not surprised by the run in terms of his home work, but probably would have gone better still on better ground. Neil’s opinion is that a horse that wants 12 or 14 furlongs on the flat should be over at least 20 furlongs over jumps and he reported that he thinks TWYD is clearly developing stamina as he continues to mature.

Whilst The Way You Dance was a bit sore the day after the race, he was better in the couple of days following and we will look for another opportunity to try him again soon.