Crack Of Thunder and Dawerann at Perth

Crack of Thunder is the last of the club horses to run this year. We've known about him since the winter and that he was being kept for the summer. This hasn't been any ordinary summer as it has been the hottest in over 40 years with no rain for a couple of months so the hard ground isn't the safest for jumps racing at the minute. The rain arrived during the last couple of weeks though and Crack Of Thunder and Dawerann were sent over to Perth in Scotland to race, much to the delight of the club members on that side of the Irish Sea. Crack Of Thunder was in a 2m 4f race over fences and I was surprised to see he was an odds on favourite the night before despite never having run for GE before. Perhaps the name of the trainer and the British Champion Jockey, Richard Johnson, on board was enough for the bookies to be very cautious. That's maybe being a bit unfair to a horse who has won 2 point to points. He didn't get away that well but Johnson coerced him into the race and I really noticed the jockeys experience and quality in this. Unfortunately, even the best jockey in the land couldn't get him close enough but he ran home a credible 5th which wasn't bad for a first run. He jumped quite well even though he went left a few times but definitely looked like he knew what he was doing. Alex reported after that Gordon was looking for a 3 mile race for him.

Dawerann was in the last race of the evening and also had Dickie Johnson riding. Dawerann is a club favourite from last year and has ran well at Perth before. This wasn't his night as he never really looked that comfortable but hung on in there to take 4th place. They were both fine the next day ahead of the trip back home.

Of the 9 Elliott runners at Perth, 7 of them won or were placed.  I've tallied up our runs to win ratio so far this year and I think we've won 2 of 28 which doesn't sound like a lot but if you had a quid on every run you'd be evens as the two winners were 10's and 16's and with your stake money back also you'd have bet £28 and won £28. Gambling and horse racing are inextricably linked but as I've said before I'm not in this for the gambling but as Gordon said in The Irish Field interview "I like winners" so a few more would be great.

The Galway Festival is also on at the minute and Gordon won the Galway Plate with Clarcam. Mark Enright was the Jockey and he had some really nice things to say about Gordon giving him work earlier in the year when he needed it and now they've a big win to share and look back on.

Lastly, I was able to email Alex my questions about Fairy Flute and she got back to me to say Fairy Flute would have been going up against even better horses if she'd gone up in trip and Smiling Eliza was probably just being kept out of the sun at The Curragh.