We didn't expect to see Adrian Wintle and Hannah Lewis as we thought they were Ascot bound the following day with Squadron, but it was certainly a pleasant surprise when we did spot them coming out of the declarations tent! With National Champion Jane Williams and The General Lee also lining up, along with promising young novice Annie Dalton and Glidewell we knew we were in for an exciting race.
The pre-race instructions from hubby were sending Hannah to sleep (sorry Ady), or was it the warm spring sunshine?
We're giving away a great prize to our AGA Champion again this season and one of the lady riders in the photo above could quite easily win it. There's been lots of talk this week suggesting that there can be only one winner, but there are 13 qualifiers left plus the final so this title race is far from over. I'll ask Mark Hill to update the prices for our Championship and I'll post them on here next week, then I'll wait for Mark to ring me to tell me he's been knocked over by the flood of money ... all for the same person.
Squadron (nearside) and The General Lee jumped the last together and then went at it all the way up the run in, with the judge again being called into action to decide the result of an AGA Ladies race - for the third time this season!
Adrian, Hannah and Jess were delighted - see above, and all being well we could see this class act line up in our final at Stratford in June.
Hannah bagged another fabulous AGA cast iron Coalbrookdale pot, plus two more AGA Pointing mugs - featuring the AGA man and her best pal Claire Hart, and she moved one step closer to winning a fantastic AGA Total Control cooker. With the formalities over it was time for Hannah to try and wriggle out of the Beazo interview - "I need to see to the horse", while we headed for the sponsors tent for some tea and cake!
Everything stopped for the next 20 minutes as the commentary from the Grand National was played over the tannoy, while those that could fit crammed into the beer tent to watch it! Derek decided not to fight his way into the tent and he listened in the fresh air - can you spot him above? By the time we reach the end of this blog post he could well have appeared in more photos than the AGA man. The next stage of our journey was a trip to the Prichard residence just outside Pontypridd for tea, and also a little surprise for the AGA man! It was quite dusky by the time we arrived, but Ian and Charlotte very kindly tacked up AGA finalist Prince Massini and then let the AGA man loose on him - just as well I packed my riding hat!
I'm not sure how 'Fergal' felt as an apprehensive AGA man was legged up as he usually carries far less weight on his back, but he took it all in his stride - although Derek found it highly amusing, not least because Ferg was wearing his racing noseband!
Still looking somewhat apprehensive I set off around the yard but a smile wasn't too far away, and Prince Massini was the perfect gentleman - exactly as promised by Charly.
It was over far too quickly but I thoroughly enjoyed it, and 'Fergal' seemed none the worse for the experience. Also, on a serious note, I am very grateful to Ian, Tracey and Charly for letting me loose on this beautiful thoroughbred - who had only raced two days earlier, thank you!
We just had time for a quick walk around the gallops - and another photo opportunity, before we headed inside for tea, and what a delicious tea it was ... we might have to come again!
It was very nearly bedtime by the time we hit the road for the short journey to Bridgend for an overnight stay - and as predicted that was an interesting experience.
Day two of our marathon weekend saw us heading deeper into Wales for a visit to Lydstep for the West Wales Area Club meeting, however the car pass was still on the desk in the office. That's normally not an issue as Derek drives a rather smart van which is covered in AGA logo's, and I carry a national point-to-point pass. However, today was an exception as the message was "thou shalt not pass"! We did eventually pass and I'm pleased to say that this was only a blip as we had a thoroughly enjoyable day in West Wales, in fact it was that good we didn't want to leave!
We had our usual trip around the lorry park to see who was about, and to try and find out who was planning to run in our race. The first person we bumped into was Myfanwy Miles and it was good to hear that Lady Myfanwy was an intended runner, while Myfanwy was in good spirits - as you can see from the photo above.
It was a case of "spot the runners" for the AGA ladies race - and the punters, but we have to look at the bigger picture sometimes and there are always positives to take from every situation. Although commentator Eddie Williams was struggling at first as you can see from this excerpt - "Now then, two runners, how do I make this interesting? Everyone here can see what I can see so does that make me superfluous? That Carl is a bad piece of work on Coronation Street ... if there is any change in the order I will wake you up ... we've had a little livener there for Lady Myfanwy, that's the most exciting thing that's happened so far".
One of the positives to take from this race is the sparkling performance of Chandlers Cross and Jenny Price, who is definitely a rising young star in the saddle, and who made a big impression on the AGA boys with her talent and personality!
It was a tremendous front running performance which was full of mighty leaps and the resulting victory was very well deserved, not bad for someone who was having only her second ever ride! Lets not forget that there were two people in this race and Lucy Jones is also a very talented rider - she was one of the first people to congratulate Jenny.
As this was a Grand National weekend it was quite fitting that we were joined for the presentation by a local lad who it just so happens has won the Grand National twice - on Party Politics in 1992 and Earth Summit in 1998 (that's Carl Llewellyn by the way).
It was good of Carl to join in the fun and Jenny was over the moon as being owner and rider she got to keep all of the AGA goodies! But was she ready for the Beazo interview?
When faced with a long journey home - it was over four hours today, we normally kick on before the last race, but today was an exception. There were lots of lovely people to talk to - all of whom were very happy to see us, and the fairy cakes in the sponsors tent were some of the best I have ever tasted! There were also plenty of people who wanted to have a chat about our AGA and Rayburn cookers, and I hope we'll be hearing from some of them very soon!
Colleen Ford-Ellis (secretary of the Curre & Llangibby) was off-duty today and as you can see she was in charge of the port - which I opened for her. She was also the second secretary that I hugged today, but in truth I could have hugged (almost) everyone on the course, such was the welcome for myself, Derek and Beazo. The journey home passed fairly quickly as we had plenty to talk about, and we also spent some time looking forward to our triple header this weekend which will see Mark head off to Ystradowen, Derek to Hackwood Park, and the AGA man and Dan to Mollington. I'm sure we'll have a successful and enjoyable weekend, and hopefully no more two runner fields.