Fontwell on Thursday for their first meeting of 2016. The ongoing monsoon rains had flooded out the first two fixtures of the year, so this was my chance to use my brand new Fontwell membership actually at Fontwell. Wearing the members badge even prompted one (admittedly well-refreshed) racegoer to ask me for a tip as "You look like you know what you are doing." Sadly I bottled it, looking quizzically at a nearby puddle and suggesting today was not the day for a bet.
The going was officially heavy but a more accurate description might have been gluey. The previous two dry days had allowed the course to race, but had made the track as testing as it could possibly be. Added to that the rails had been moved to find 'fresh' ground making each race longer than the official distance. One local expert even suggested that the 2 mile 5 furlong handicap chase, was really run over 3 miles. Any horse with the description 'slow plodder' in the form guide might finally have its day.
Venetia Williams drives very fast sports cars, but as a trainer specialises in training staying chasers which thrive in slow going. It's as if she drives a Ferrari but trains a fleet of Landrover Defenders. With this in mind a small investment on her Cloudy Beach, ridden by well-regarded young jockey Charlie Deutsch, yielded dividends in the second.
The other highlight was the novice hurdle, in which there was a real hotpot. Chef D'Oeuvre was sent off the 1/5 favourite (i.e bet £5 to win £1). The trainer, Warren Greatrex, places his horses really well (remember any of his that run at the Cheltenham festival next month will be worth a second look), and on all known form Chef D'oeuvre was set to win easily. By instinct I am not an odds on man, but there are times when a horse is so superior that the bet amounts to buying money. I was tempted but resisted because of the state of the going - this was a race to watch rather than punt on.
As it turned out the favourite prevailed, but not without a battle which would have caused some hearts to flutter amongst anyone who had gone large on the jolly. At one point it looked like Norman the Red, a 100/1 shot, might cause a shock; as it was he left all his previous dire form well behind and finished second.
The outsider was trained by Jamie Poulton. He's been training, mainly bad, horses around the south of England for years, and I noticed drives the horse box to the track himself. Some punters know him as 'Lovejoy'. Not due to any dodgy dealing but because he really does remind people of the Norfolk antique dealer popularised by the actor Ian McShane in the 1980's TV series. It's the outrageous mullet haircut, tight jeans and pointy shoes which does it.
Highlight of the day for me though was the journey back to Barnham Station on the complimentary bus. Owing to the rail replacement services operating to Littlehampton, there was obviously a shortage of coaches. Our conveyance was an old double decker, c.1972, with two doors downstairs, one near the driver and one in the middle for passengers to get off.
We set off from the course full to bursting, with the second door open. Someone suggested telling the driver, but the consensus amongst the passengers was that if we did that then the bus might be defected and we would have to walk home. It was like being driven along in one of those vans favoured by builders in the '70's, with sliding doors which they always kept open expect in mid-winter. The urge to shout "Ello darlin" at every woman we passed was resisted, but the fault did enable those of us near the door to perfect a flying dismount while the bus was still (just) moving, thereby getting on the platform with 5 seconds to spare to catch the 1708 back to Brighton.
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