The AGA tent in bright sunshine, but we had all seen the weather forecast so we knew that a mixture of wind and rain would be with us by early afternoon - which was to turn Mollington into a mudbath! Due to the second inspection at Hackwood Park we decided that the best plan of action would be for Derek to leave once the result of the inspection was known, not really ideal, but a wise decision given the circumstances!
Above: PPA board member and owner of Topless, Steven Astaire is posing with the AGA man, while in the second pic the grey Topless (Clare Wills) leads Horsham Lad (Phine Banks - blue), Prince Massini (Charly Prichard - yellow/black) & Officier De Reserve (Gina Andrews), in the third pic Phine leads from Quatrocento (Claire Hart) & Prince Massini.
Horsham Lad stormed up the hill for his 3rd AGA win of the season, which cemented Phine Bank's position at the head of our lady riders Championship table.
Wet, wet, wet! The water was dripping off my cap and I had to use all of my powers of persuasion to convince the girls from the AGA shop in Adderbury (Sue & Amanda) to leave the shelter of the tent so that they could take part in the presentation following the AGA race.
You would expect the rain to dampen the spirits a little but it didn't, and while there's no denying we'd all prefer a bit of sun on our backs (humans and horses), we still had a tremendous day in the rain.
It was good to finally meet trainer Alan Hill and have a natter - he passed on a very useful piece of info about Stratford racecourse, and Heather Kemp also stopped by for a glass of port to toast her win in the Mens Open with Gidam Gidam, and have a chat with AGA Finance Director Shaun Smith.
Meanwhile, down in Hampshire ... Derek was stuck in a traffic jam in Newbury and with the start time for the AGA race looming he asked me to send an emergency tweet in the hope that somebody at Hackwood would pick it up.
If this fixture had gone ahead on the original date then the full AGA roadshow would have been there, along with the AGA man, in fact it was a fixture that we were all really looking forward to. As soon as the new date was announced I knew we were in trouble, and if I could have pulled out at that point I would have. The second inspection at twelve o'clock also conspired against us with a number of people taking the option of going elsewhere (both punters and owners), so we were left with our third two runner 'race' of the season.
Derek had originally planned to leave mid-morning but the second inspection put us in a difficult position as he could well have arrived (or not been far away), and then had to turn round and come straight back. We do feel hard done by with this one but that's not fair on Hannah Watson (Medic) and Frankie Hickman (Ballagio) plus the connections of both horses, as without them we wouldn't have even had a race!
Smiling in the rain - as you do, a very wet Derek braved the elements along with winning rider Hannah Watson and the connections of Medic, although the presentation had to take place inside one of the tents!
After the presentation Derek jumped back in the van and headed for Mollington, while down in Wales Mark was also braving the elements as he watched a promising young rider pick up her second AGA win in the space of six days!
We had seen Jenny Price win the AGA Ladies Open at Lydstep on Chandlers Cross the previous Sunday, and this win was just as impressive as the pair beat a decent field by a very easy 8 lengths.
As you can see from the photos it was just as wet and muddy at Ystradowen as it was at Hackwood Park and Mollington, but the rain couldn't wash the smile from Jenny's face as she prepared to pick up some more AGA goodies from Mark, and another 10 AGA points!
The AGA boys were in their polo shirts by the end of February last year - at Howick, but so far this season they have not been sighted!
Meanwhile, back at Mollington ... Dan was beginning to think the sun would never, ever shine again at a point-to-point meeting as he hung on to the inside of the AGA tent to prevent it from blowing away and ending up in Banbury!
Then Derek arrived back at Mollington from his road trip to Hampshire and asked Dan where the tent was ... leaving Dan scratching his head (below) and thinking "it was there a minute ago".
The tent was ok but the real test was still to come as first my car, and then Beazo's had to be pushed out through the mud in the foreground. Dan, Beazo and Derek did the pushing, with a fair bit of that mud ending up on Beazo's face, although there is no photographic evidence to support this because we were all laughing so much!
A quick whizz round the lorry park with Beazo found a few hardy souls braving the conditions - including Laura Horsfall, although entertaining is much more fun when it's dry (and sunny), but this is pointing and the show goes on whatever the weather (most of the time). It was a tremendous day of pointing - despite the conditions, which saw three decent AGA winners and another good effort from the AGA boys, who really do love the mud and the rain!