Whilst the rest of the world likes poking fun at our weather, most of us in Britain seem to harbour a belief that our climate needn’t stop us doing what we have planned. On a wet Sunday at the start of November Moleside members found that there are good grounds for agreeing with both points of view.
Welcomed to Sandown Park in fine musical style by our event organiser Stephen we knew, after a serious drenching of rain that morning, we could look forward to a dry afternoon in the warmth of the Jockey Club’s Gallery – right alongside the Finishing Post.
An excellent carvery menu insured we didn’t miss our Sunday Lunch at home and 25 of us settled in to refresh our understanding of how the business of stakes and odds works.
It was a pleasure to have Pam Smyth and Diana Thalben-Ball, both members of the Moleside Ladies group, join us for the visit.
Pam told us that she and her late husband David were great lovers of horse racing. Diana remembers an enjoyable Moleside visit to Lingfield several years ago but admitted that this was her first experience of a meeting over jumps.
We hope they both enjoyed being with us all.
Excitement mounted as outside the clouds rolled back and the sun made an appearance in what looked as though it might become a pretty clear blue sky.
Paul Walker, who coordinates our events programme, had already picked the winner in the first race when he and his wife Andrea followed that up with Nos.1 & 2 in the second.
Sadly the field of five this time was so small that Paul found he only just about got his stake back. But then a win is a win!
Perhaps the change in the weather would allow some of us to venture trackside where the traditional bookies would surely offer better terms than the very efficient, all electronic Tote service laid on for us where we had lunched.
In fact things were starting to look up for all of us and we knew we had 4 more races to make up for any earlier disappointments. But, immediately after Colonel Harry had won the third race by a good many lengths from Uncle Bert, a steward’s inspection decided that, despite the sunshine, the excitement of three races had left the course unfit for further racing.
And that left those of us with modest bets already placed on Race No. 4 having to check that we’d get our money back.
Our afternoon had been brought to an abrupt end but not before there was general agreement amongst the Molesiders that our first horse racing with the club for many years had certainly left a taste for more.
Thanks to Stephen Rouse for arranging a memorable Sunday afternoon for us – and to his wife Kay for the great photos she captured of us all enjoying it.
Click the Tag for reports on other recent Moleside Visits.