Another day at the races!

Friday 8th April (I’m sure it was the 13th) pretty much summed up this 2015-16 N.H season for us and sadly anyone involved with us at Cropredy Lawn.

Not much has gone right through the season but the arrival of GWAFA onto the scene has cheered us up immensely. We purposely avoided the temptation of Cheltenham, as Aintree looked the ideal place to let him have a go at a decent prize. With a smallish field and drying ground, we set off for one of the few occasions recently with a bit of realistic hope for a better day.

On reflection may be a ‘blow-out’ at 85 mph in the outside lane of a typically crowded M6, should have been ample warning of what laid ahead in the afternoon! Having personally crossed over ‘Canal Turn’ nine times in my career, getting safely across to the ‘hard shoulder’ was no problem. Changing an outside tyre as the traffic thunders past did remind me of those times when I’d ‘hit the deck’ in front of a field of 22 handicap hurdlers. Thankfully I had as my deputy tyre-man
that distinguished and trustworthy Pall Mall jeweller Humphrey Butler, who must have spent time at Formula 1 academy at some point in his illustrious career.

We continued on our pilgrimage to the shrine that is Aintree on Ladies Day and then enjoyed our lavish picnic in the awe-inspiring surroundings of Quick-Fit, just off the Ormskirk Road. You ever need a re-mould, go nowhere else, yours for £30 with a £10ew on Gwafa for the lads.

Sadly the rest of the day is reported only in the form book and not in glorious headlines in the Racing Post. Gwafa cruises along until having nowhere to land at the fourth hurdle, so takes dramatic evasive action which no jockey in the land could have ’stayed with’. Thankfully both horse and Richie McLernon are fine and all roads now lead back up the M6, past the site of our previous excitements, to Haydock for the Pertemps Hurdle (formerly the Swinton) on 7th May.”