He came and he saw, but did he conquer?

The gladiator known as Muffin pranced into a glorious Kempton, returning to the scene of one of his many impressive triumphs earlier in the campaign. Bathed in early evening sunshine, the throngs hailed the champion and, in particular, one noisy part of that throng which had set up their encampment just south of the Thames on the outskirts of an area known locally as ‘The Owners and Trainers Bar’.

This disparate group was many in number, including representatives from tribes from regions with strange-sounding names such as Essex, South Hampton, Berks Hire and even one from somewhere called ‘The Deep Dale’. They remained in good spirits despite their abject failure to locate what they referred to mysteriously as ‘a winner’. They knew it was only a matter of time before the great Muffin arrived to save the day.

Their spirits were further raised by the arrival of the Judy, although she was not accompanied on this day by Punch, who was apparently looking after a maiden elsewhere. The Fergus was also seen, practicing for his upcoming joining with the Muffin, although his attempt to ‘sit in’ and then ‘come from behind’ did not seem to be working and many of the gathered throng were rather disappointed with him as it meant some of the locals took away much of their bread.

Finally, the time came for the appearance of the Muffin. The throng moved into the Ring of Parades and were joined by Fergus who, when ribbed about his earlier tactics, agreed that he was counting on Muffin to ‘get him out of the messy stuff’. Muffin strutted around looking magnificent, of course, but he did not seem to be quite his usual ‘difficult to handle’ self today. He was also missing his lucky ‘West Ham’ blanket for some reason. An omen, perhaps?

And then they were off down to the post, with the throng scrabbling to hand over more dough before congregating in the specially designated viewing area next to the Royal Box. They were quickly away and the cheering masses were more than a little surprised to see Muffin battling it out for the lead as they came around the bend rather than sitting in his customary place just off the pace. As they came off the bend with three furlongs to run, Muffin seemed to quicken and start to pull away. But then, disaster – horses were coming past him down the straight. In fact, every horse in the filed had come past him by the time they reached the line.

That Muffin finished last of the 10 is no big deal and, indeed, I’m sure we were all glad not to see Fergus beating him up in the last furlong in an attempt to finish 8th when his race was clearly well and truly over already. So, did get an answer to the big question that this race was intended to solve – can Muffin get a mile? Leaving the stand it appeared that the answer was clearly ‘no’, since he seemed to have run an excellent 6-7 furlongs and then tired under the top weight in the closing stages. Fergus had a rather different story to tell, though… Apparently, the problem was that Muffin never settled at all because he was going eyeball-to-eyeball with the horse next to him like a couple of teenage boys at the local nightclub after two pints of Shandy. As a result, Fergus could never get control of him and the usual tactic of holding him up therefore when out of the window with the result that he inevitably ran himself out too early. So, the jury is still out on whether he can stay a mile under more normal circumstances. I’m sure we would all be more than happy to return to one of the nicest courses in the country in September for the final of this ‘London Mile’ event if Muffin qualifies.

So, Muffin came and saw but, on this occasion, failed to conquer. Not that we didn’t all have an excellent evening anyway.

I will close this report with a personal congratulation from everyone involved with the Guild to our excellent trainers Judy and Stuart, who celebrate their anniversary (did you really say 25 years???) with a well-earned vacation next week. They are off to cruise around the Med … all organized by Judy, apparently. There is, though, a chance they will come back green as Judy did comment that they both have the sea legs of the average rhino. It is therefore unlikely that either Guild horse will run again before the 18th of August, although hopefully both will be in action soon after Stuart and Judy return. (PS. One last note to members – Stuart’s excellent young horse, Rash Judgement runs again Saturday and may well be worth a look after its first outing last week.)

Marc.