Idyllic setting for new arrival

In what seems like déjà vu, thankfully my mind is not playing tricks, and after the opening, and closure, of Great Leighs, Britain's newest race track since Taunton in 1927, it seems as one turnstile closes, another one opens, as tonight sees the latest racecourse to stage its inaugural fixture (and let's hope this one lasts a little longer than it's all-weather counterpart).

Not far from Carmarthen Bay, in Wales, Ffos Las stages a cracking jumps card, which as soon as the first race date was announced, was a sell-out.

Some racecourses mix both flat and jumping together, and this stunning-looking course is no exception as an all-flat card has been scheduled for July 21.

To my great surprise I was really pleased that the purebred Arabian racing scene had not been neglected and the likes of Gill Duffield could be represented next Saturday where a programme restricted to the slower members of race animals will be staged.

I was beginning to get worried that England was keener on adding more all-weather tracks and thus slowly cutting away the turf-race calendar, but with the opening of this idyllic course, which has no dreaded sand circuit in sight, maybe I was being too hasty.

I hope the racecourse has a long and prosperous life span.

Dream dashed

With Royal Ascot now truly under way, it brings back memories of when I used to work for Andrew Balding and all the excitement and nervous tension among the stable staff, not to mention the trainer himself, that the big meetings brought.

Each year on the eve of the five-day festival, all of the runners expected to represent the yard were paraded around the paddock and asked to “trot up'' for Andrew and his father Ian, who watched over with eagle eyes before physically examining each individual with a fine-tooth comb.

On a normal day most lads aren't that keen at the prospect of “standing up'' their charge as it usually meant they were the last to finish evening stables, but if you got the call on the day before the royal meeting, you knew your equine friend was destined to take its chance on the world stage in front of the Queen, therefore it didn't matter how late you were.

After a quick flick of the tail and grease of the hooves, I pulled out Irony, who was a previous winner of the Windsor Castle Stakes for Jamie Osborne but had gone a little sour, so the owners thought the sublime gallops of Kingsclere would bring out revitalisation.

If I say so myself, my thoroughbred friend looked pretty tidy and would certainly have been a major contender if there was an in-house best turned-out competition. The “guvnor'' seemed happy himself as he ran his hands down the horse's tendon; good, all set to run then.

Unfortunately the quirky speedster managed to get cast (rolled and got stuck against the wall without being able to get back over) in his box during the night and my dream of looking after a Royal Ascot winner was over leaving me to ponder what might have been. I knew I should have put that extra bag of shavings in his stable!