Everything seemed perfect. It started wth the incoming rain Sunday night which continued through most of Monday softening the ground to Muffin's liking. This was followed by an unusually clear drive to Chepstow. No rush-hour queues, none of the usual holdups. Again everything seemed perfect.

We all met up and exchanged views and hopes for Muffin. Several other fancied horses were declared non-runners, increasing our confidence.

Then Muffin strode into the parade ring, looking magnificent, on his toes, ready to go. Our confidence continued to grow. His odds of 8/1 seemed exceptionally good value. Surely all this was too good to be true..................................... and it was!!!

At the start, out of our view, Muffin got caught up in the tape, threw his jockey and set off on his own personal adventure. As he completed the 6 furlongs alone he raised the loudest cheer of the night from the crowd. He seemed to lap this up and so set off on a circuit of the Chepstow track only stopping to inspect one of the fences at the far corner of the jumps course (possibly for future reference). He then continued back towards the start before turning back to avoid capture. By the time he was eventually caught he must have run at least 2 miles and delayed the start of the race by a full 10 minutes. I thought Muffin liked attention and now I'm sure of it!!

The race was eventually run without Muffin and another horse who also threw its jockey and ran off (though not with the style which Muffin displayed). I don't know who won the race. I don't care who won the race. Our only concern was for Muffin's wellbeing. After the race he was led down the home straight. Amazingly, he still had his ears pricked and was on his toes as though ready to race. An inspection by Stuart confirmed he was okay and hopefully we will get more news on this tomorrow (sorry - later today).

We returned to the bar not knowing whether to laugh or cry at what we had seen. The relief of knowing he was okay was tinged with the disappointment of an opportunity of a good run missed.

On reflection 3 thoughts come to mind which make things seem not quite so bad:

1) Of all the bad things which could have happened this was really quite a minor blip. As far as I know nobody (horse, jockey) was to blame for what happened, it was just one of those things. Also as far as I'm aware both jockey and horse were fine afterwards.

2) It was still a good night and Anthony (AKA the prince of placepots) won yet another placepot!

3) If you're feeling sorry for yourself because of what happened consider that Tim and Jackie had made a 3 hour drive to get there and were staying overnight but were still able to see the funny side. I hope they are rewarded by seeing a Guild horse win next time they attend a meeting.

Let's hope for better luck if Molly gets in at Bath on Wednesday. Tonight's events certainly won't stop me being there.

Sandra