Sorry everyone, but you're lumbered with me again!!

We've just returned home from Bath after the second leg of our Guild Weekend and I would have loved to have been reporting on our second success, but unfortunately it seems Muffin had other ideas!

Tim and I were the first of our crew to arrive at the meeting today, closely followed by Anthony, Alun and Jayne, and as usual we settled in the bar (quel surprise) and waited for Tim (Kittow) to join us. We enjoyed a few wins between us during the first five races and then it was time to meet and greet his lordship in the parade ring. Obviously his solo performance at Chepstow was in our minds, and when Fergus joined us, it was clearly on his mind too, but he assured us there were no hard feelings, and very sportingly put it down to Muffin's "quirky" character! After just a circuit or so of the parade ring, and a quick dab of superglue on the saddle, they were off on their way to the start while we headed for the stand.

It was a very fast start, and Muffin seemed to settle in close to the rail for the first couple of furlongs, but when they came into the straight, he didn't seem to pick up at all as we would usually expect, and ran the rest of the race behind the main pack with no real prospect of improvement before the end, finally finishing 12th of 15.

When Fergus came back to the ring, he confirmed that he was going fine for the first two furlongs, but then he didn't pick up as he usually would. He also suggested leaving off the visors next time out, as they are not always a permanent solution, and that perhaps the novelty value had worn off.

Muffin seemed fine after the race, and hopefully it was just "a bad day at the office", but obviously Stuart will let us know how he is once he gets home.

A disappointing performance, as we all know that he is capable of so much more, but, we all have off days don't we? Lets hope for a better trip next time.

Despite the result, it was great to see the other Guilder's again - already looking forward to next time.

Bye for now Jackie x