I’m sick of sickness. Its the downside of having so many young dogs in the kennel is that they are prone to bugs and we’ve had about 40 down with it. It isn’t too bad with the older dogs who have developed a degree of immunity but you can still get caught out if they get a low grade infection.
Saffrons Anna was one of the few older dogs to go down with it but she bounced back to break the track record at Henlow so it is fair to say she is over it.
Apart from slowing you down when you have so many dogs off-colour, the biggest nuisance is trying to get trials to grade them back in.
The major event on our minds a the moment is the Pinpoint Three Steps To Victory race at Sheffield. We have two in it, Ribble Aon who finished second to the fastest first round winner (Mustang Chick) and Patchys Kerry who is one of the favourites despite a narrow defeat in the second fastest heat. Kerry has a very tough draw in the semis, but if she can get through that I would hope to go close in the final.
I was pleased to see Henlow put on a bitch’s stake at the same time as Towcester run the Mervyn Cross Memorial. We might have lost Aero Babooshka and Evanta Fantasy to retirement but we will still have Ballymac Shirley and Saffrons Anna for Henlow and Domino Storm and Air Force Duchess for Towcester.
I wish there were more races confined to bitches. If each SKY meeting had a bitch’s race and a marathon on the supporting card, I guarantee we would be there.
