Keeping the string active
Quite a lot of snow.................
A couple of feet of snow has fallen in the Hawick area over the last few
days, which has made it a bit of a struggle to get each horse out of the stable box never mind
on the gallops.
The team are making the most of the very poor conditions, but the string
are limited to some trotting around one of the paddocks attached to the
yard.
No entries next week, maybe Ayr next weekend at best but the horses have
been quite fit so it shouldn't take too much work to bring them on as
the stable prepares for a Spring campaign.
Picture postcard views, with even our Trainee Security Officer looking on pensively.
Dali Mail........what's in a name?
Bred in France and descended from an AQPS family,
Dali Mail was
duly named in France as a yearling, his first initial being 'D'
representing 2013 as a foaling year.
When Al Duncan brought home the gelding to Dodlands from Goffs UK
Sales (Doncaster) in May 2016, the option to re-name the horse was
still there as he hadn't run in the UK. But the original name stood. And what were
its' origins anyway?
The 'Mail' part of the name derives from the family - the
dam is Queenly Mail, and the grand-dam is Favilla Mail. More so,
Dali Mail has a couple of half brothers sharing that 'surname' in
Chez Castell Mail and Elvis Mail, both in training in Britain.
But what of 'Dali'? The only Dali to our knowledge is the Spanish
surrealist Salvadore Dalí.
Which leads us to the curious tale of the theft of a drawing (Cartel des Don Juan Tenorio) by Salvador Dalí which was stolen from the newly opened Venus Over Manhattan gallery in New York, on 19 June 2012. The thief was never apprehended, though the work was recovered, the Manhatten gallery receiving the drawing by mail, in the post, later that month.
Now that put our horse naming policy - recently, a mixture of cartoon
characters and obscure love songs - very much to shame.
Not as much shame however as should be shared by racecourse commentators and
Racing UK staff who pronounce the French gelding's name as if it is
a right-wing tabloid newspaper.
Step forward Gareth Topham, Broony, Nick Lightfoot et al - Dali Mail.......now it's not that hard is it?
Dali Mail
