The less said about Romeos performance at Wetherby on Charlie Hall Chase day the better.
Except to say that if we expect Romeo to do his best for us, then its incumbent on us to ensure we do our best for him.
We thought we had, but unfortunately, the weather decided it was going to have the final say, and at approx 1.00pm it began to rain and rain and rain some more, and as a result, when the 4-10pm last race on the card off time came, and the starters flag came down, with the ground at its very worst, fifteen brave horses set out on their 2ml 4f journey.
Horses who raced prominently didn`t get the kick back, (the winner Mister Scrumpy was always prominent) but others suffered and after 2mls most became unrecognisable to those following the race on the big screen as racing silks all became the same muddy black colour.
Consequently Romeo, and many others looked very sad sights as they struggled to get to the lollypop.
Post race comments from Romeos regular jockey Sean Quinlan, the repeatable ones anyway, were, “that was nothing like the horse I rode last time at Carlisle”, and “I reckon you should get him scoped as he may have copt for some mud in his nostrils or throat….he was gurgling for most of the race.”
One post race comment from a respected observer…….if conditions had been like that for the first race, I doubt whether the meeting would have survived for the Charlie Hall Chase.
