Angel slippers

Fact. If you want to watch a foaling you can occasionally get lucky and get one before 10pm.

Fiction. Dinner will re-heat and have some resemblance to what it was originally intended to look/taste like when you return to the house some hours later given the foal in question had no intention of standing quickly and thereby denying the 8 year old boy (on hand for his first foaling)  plus the 2 work experience students any chance of getting to bed on time.

Fact. There's nothing more amazing than watching a foal come into the world. Whether it's the first one you've seen or the 400th - there is something undeniably wondrous about it. Grab one of Richard Mnculwane (Scottie's) clip boards. He  agrees. He always jots down "Guineas winner/Slipper winner/Oaks winner" beside a new foal entry.

It's the possibilities and dreams that make all of us love this game so much.

Fiction. Foal hooves are hard. They are in fact covered with a soft white (and flexible) covering to protect the birth canal during birth. Our foaling managers call them Angel Slippers. One cannot help but recall the  quote from William Shakespeare in Hamlet (Act 5, Scene 2 in case anyone is checking) at such a time: "And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!".

Genius, yes, but Shakespeare obviously had no experience with a  commercial stud farm. The only sleep our Foaling team and Night Watch staff get is the result of simple exhaustion - and all those angel slippers - after a night when a group of mares conspire to foal between 7.40pm and 6am.

Fact. Please bear with the less frequent blog posts at present. We have a massive Web-based project underway that relates to the upcoming Ready to Run sales.  Come rain or shine (or the public holiday which apparently falls the same day in South Africa) we will go live with it next Monday. Stay tuned.

Anyone see that Kahal collected another 2 winners in just one day this week?