About two weeks ago Richard raced in the final jump race of the season. Marcus was booked, the ground was surprisingly good and Richie looking better than ever. So realistically we were looking at at least being in the money if everything went by plan.
But of course it didn't. Once again bloody Marcus didn't show up. He'd got a few rides at Cheltenham. This time he did at least let us know, but it didn't help very much because where do you find a jump jockey around here?!
After calling every person we could think of in the UK and Scandinavia we were left with two choices: A Swedish girl who's name made the few people who had actually heard of her shake their heads and say 'no no no' and a 50 year old retired jump jockey who hadn't jump raced for years, but could do the weight.
A difficult one yes, but we landed on experience over uselessness. But as the race got away it became very clear that our man had lost his nerve somewhere on the other side of 50. He never got in the race, nearly fell off over the second last although Richie jumped perfectly and stayed well at the back even on the home straight.
So Richie came back looking like he'd been out for a walk in the park and the jockey jumped off and just walked away without saying a word. He knew as well as us.
And I don't blame him at all. At least he tried. And besides because he was so far at the back he made sure Richie went well clear of the carnage that took place at the last fence. The horse that won the other jump race a few weeks ago did what it usually does - totally failed to pick its feet up. This time the fence was flung up in the air and landed several meters ahead on top of the poor jockey's arm. He came away with just a bruise - but what a bruise! He could barely use his arm to pick up his pint later on...
So all in all I was quite happy with the outcome. But it is of course terribly annoying that a race where Richie should have been in the money was ruined by something so stupid, especialy since things have been going a bit wrong all season really.
Before I left the races I told Rene that he best just loose some weight before next season - we could sure do with a decent back-up rider.
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