Elf On A Shelf
...
Ok so I am going to cheat a little and this is more going to be 2-3 days mangled into one post. But it's not everyday you are involved with a runner in the National! I will warn you now - you are going to be put through the wringer in this one!
Nothing had been going right with Arthur this season. Nothing. It really was the last 2-3 weeks that everything came together and we were all getting quite excited! Arthur had won the race before - there was no reason he couldn't do it again! Except for a little horse called Tiger Roll getting in his way. I generally run the yards Facebook page, though the Boss and Jaimie have access to it too. And I had this idea on Thursday evening to get some of our staff to describe Arthur in 3 words, on camera that I would stitch into 1 video to post on the page the next day.
Friday rolls around and Jaimie is posting live updates from Aintree of our 2 runners that were running in the Topham Chase that day. Forest and Victor had taken everything in their stride and had eaten up over night and both passed the trot up in the morning. Whilst they were eating Jaimie went to harrass the BHA staff at the sign in desk for pictures and then added a video of the buzz of Aintree at 6.30am! Even at that time it was busy! Wee Paddy took Forest out for a leg stretch on the gallops, Victor did not join him as the ground had been deemed too soft for him so he was declared a non-runner. So he got to spend the day chilling out eating. Not that he was complaining!
During the morning I posted various things on the Facebook page including doing an incredibly rare round of Facebook live! I had scooted ahead on Boris and did 2x up the gallops before everyone else got there. Arthur was only going up once but he needed someone to hold his hand on the way home as he isn't the best in traffic so Boris stepped into the breach, you can always rely on him! Boris was loving having the gallops to himself and I thought I had timed it so that I only had a minute or 2 at most to whack on the Facebook Live before everyone got to the gallops. Oh how wrong I was! 5 minutes people had to put up with me waffling on for! It's funny I never speak on anything, I never hear my own voice played back so it was really weird when I watched the video back and realised just how English I still sound! I didn't think I was still that prominent seeing as I have lived in Scotland since I was 8yo! I am now 31! So you had a wee scenic tour and everyone got told how awesome Big Bad Boris is before following Arthur up the gallops in his final leg stretch before heading to Aintree later that afternoon. If you want to watch it it's here:
Arthur got loaded up and went off on his travels just after 2.30pm so of course that was another video up on the page! We were basically bombarding the page with Arthur stuff lol!
4.05pm time for Forest to run in the Topham. My god he pinged those big fences! He was loving them! Beachers Brook - not a bother! The Chair - pft! Easy! Canal Turn - Hold on tight Derek! It's a tight turn! Over the second last still cruising! Forest could win this thing! He was flying! Then disaster struck ... On the final stride before the final fence his leg went. He still took off, sailed over like a pro and landed running - on 3 legs. I turned the race off at this point. I couldn't watch any more. I knew the outcome straight away. It is a testament to that horses guts and determination that he got over that fence - and the fact that he was pumped full of adrenaline and wouldn't have felt a thing. The vets would have been on him in seconds and a few more seconds later Forest laid down for the last time. I have not watched the end of the race. The horse that won won easy. But our horse didn't come home. It had nothing to do with the National fences. It was just one of those really, really shitty things that happens. Everyone is devastated. It doesn't matter that Forest was a good racehorse he was a genuinely lovely horse to ride and deal with on a daily basis. He had been loved and cherished by Wee Paddy all year, Paddy is in his first year in racing, he is just a young lad and it hit him hard.
Wee Paddy and Forest Des Aigles having a leg stretch on Friday morning.
The Facebook page fell by the wayside a bit after that. I kept up with the likes and sad faces but nothing more was posted that day.
Saturday morning rolls around. I posted up the video from the day before of people 3 words. One of the older guys thinks he is funny and got cock, he thought he had the best set of words for Arthur. I said 3 words! On film he said - Arthur is a horse, a gift from God. So because he was being a cocky erse I cut his section right down to - Arthur is a horse! Muahahahahaaaaa! I have the power! https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=574284889645882
As the day went on everyone was still very numb from the day before. We were all worried for Arthur. We knew he could jump the fences but so could Forest. Anything could happen at any time. We rattled through our work, got done early and went our seperate ways ready to regroup at the pub later on for the race itself. Arthur was barely mentioned in the preliminaries. He never had the tv cameras on him once! I know there were 39 other horses in the race but Arthur is a previous National winner! They could have given him 30 seconds for goodness sake! 4.30pm and everyone is nervous but excited. No backing out now!
Off he goes!
Race time! False start! Of course there's a false bloomin start! There always is! Pft! Arthur had a really good position up front first time around! And they are off! Thundering down to the first ( I really hate that! There's no need! There's 4 miles to get through not 5 furlongs!) A Trevor Hemmings grey is down and ploughing straight into him whilst he is down was Up For Review. The whole pub gasps. We knew instantly that the horse was gone. The camera's couldn't pan away because it was the head on view so the whole world and his wife had to watch the poor horse go through his final motions. Over the 2nd. Everyone is still on their feet. We had lost Arthur a bit as he was wearing Deb's black and red silks this year, not the Saltire he wore in 2017. Fence after fence and we barely see him but he is still on his feet, still jumping away out the back, still rolling away down the middle keeping out of trouble. A circuit done. A record 37 horses went out for the 2nd circuit. Arthur was still there, jumping away cleanly out the back. Fence after fence rolled by. Horses pulled up, fell or unseated and yet there was Arthur, still bowling along without a care in the world! They head for home. Arthur starts cutting through the pack. Can he do it again!?!? Really!?!? The whole pub is screaming by now! "Come On Arthur! Keep Going! Good Lad! Hup! Come On!!!" Over the last and he is still making up ground! He is grinding them down one by one! Strolling on past! He had got into 4th place! Everyone went wild! He can do it! It's a long was home from the elbow! "Come On Arthur! Your can do it mate!" The blood was pounding through our veins! The adrenaline was soaring through our systems. We were SCREAMING at the tv! Each and everyone of us bouncing up and down screaming him home! Then he folded. He dropped back to 6th. The lack of match fitness from having not actually completing a race this year took it's toll. But still! He had completed! He had got himself a place in the top 10! He had run a bloody brilliant race! We are all still screaming and shouting! Cheering Arthur, Cheering that bloody awesome little horse that is called Tiger Roll! What a race they both ran!
15 minutes later we got a message through from Jaimie ... Arthur ... He was absolutely bloomin well fine! Not a bother on him! What a super star! An hour later he was bad in HIS box! Yes he gets the same box every time he goes to Aintree - he won in 2017 from box 71 so box 71 is his! It has his name on it!
The soaring highs and the devastating lows all within 25 hours! Of course the Facebook page went nuts! I try to make sure every comment is 'liked' in some way shape or form, I don't want people to think we don't care or appreciate them because we do! The public help make the racing and we always try to be as inclusive as we can be. It's hard work at times like this but it is very much worth it! Feel free to go and nosey at Lucinda Russell Racing on Facebook, it is open to all and any dodger pictures most certainly were not from me
Roll on Aintree 2020!
Off to the field for a well earned roll in the Scottish mud!
Nothing had been going right with Arthur this season. Nothing. It really was the last 2-3 weeks that everything came together and we were all getting quite excited! Arthur had won the race before - there was no reason he couldn't do it again! Except for a little horse called Tiger Roll getting in his way. I generally run the yards Facebook page, though the Boss and Jaimie have access to it too. And I had this idea on Thursday evening to get some of our staff to describe Arthur in 3 words, on camera that I would stitch into 1 video to post on the page the next day.
Friday rolls around and Jaimie is posting live updates from Aintree of our 2 runners that were running in the Topham Chase that day. Forest and Victor had taken everything in their stride and had eaten up over night and both passed the trot up in the morning. Whilst they were eating Jaimie went to harrass the BHA staff at the sign in desk for pictures and then added a video of the buzz of Aintree at 6.30am! Even at that time it was busy! Wee Paddy took Forest out for a leg stretch on the gallops, Victor did not join him as the ground had been deemed too soft for him so he was declared a non-runner. So he got to spend the day chilling out eating. Not that he was complaining!
During the morning I posted various things on the Facebook page including doing an incredibly rare round of Facebook live! I had scooted ahead on Boris and did 2x up the gallops before everyone else got there. Arthur was only going up once but he needed someone to hold his hand on the way home as he isn't the best in traffic so Boris stepped into the breach, you can always rely on him! Boris was loving having the gallops to himself and I thought I had timed it so that I only had a minute or 2 at most to whack on the Facebook Live before everyone got to the gallops. Oh how wrong I was! 5 minutes people had to put up with me waffling on for! It's funny I never speak on anything, I never hear my own voice played back so it was really weird when I watched the video back and realised just how English I still sound! I didn't think I was still that prominent seeing as I have lived in Scotland since I was 8yo! I am now 31! So you had a wee scenic tour and everyone got told how awesome Big Bad Boris is before following Arthur up the gallops in his final leg stretch before heading to Aintree later that afternoon. If you want to watch it it's here:
Arthur got loaded up and went off on his travels just after 2.30pm so of course that was another video up on the page! We were basically bombarding the page with Arthur stuff lol!
4.05pm time for Forest to run in the Topham. My god he pinged those big fences! He was loving them! Beachers Brook - not a bother! The Chair - pft! Easy! Canal Turn - Hold on tight Derek! It's a tight turn! Over the second last still cruising! Forest could win this thing! He was flying! Then disaster struck ... On the final stride before the final fence his leg went. He still took off, sailed over like a pro and landed running - on 3 legs. I turned the race off at this point. I couldn't watch any more. I knew the outcome straight away. It is a testament to that horses guts and determination that he got over that fence - and the fact that he was pumped full of adrenaline and wouldn't have felt a thing. The vets would have been on him in seconds and a few more seconds later Forest laid down for the last time. I have not watched the end of the race. The horse that won won easy. But our horse didn't come home. It had nothing to do with the National fences. It was just one of those really, really shitty things that happens. Everyone is devastated. It doesn't matter that Forest was a good racehorse he was a genuinely lovely horse to ride and deal with on a daily basis. He had been loved and cherished by Wee Paddy all year, Paddy is in his first year in racing, he is just a young lad and it hit him hard.
Wee Paddy and Forest Des Aigles having a leg stretch on Friday morning.
The Facebook page fell by the wayside a bit after that. I kept up with the likes and sad faces but nothing more was posted that day.
Saturday morning rolls around. I posted up the video from the day before of people 3 words. One of the older guys thinks he is funny and got cock, he thought he had the best set of words for Arthur. I said 3 words! On film he said - Arthur is a horse, a gift from God. So because he was being a cocky erse I cut his section right down to - Arthur is a horse! Muahahahahaaaaa! I have the power! https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=574284889645882
As the day went on everyone was still very numb from the day before. We were all worried for Arthur. We knew he could jump the fences but so could Forest. Anything could happen at any time. We rattled through our work, got done early and went our seperate ways ready to regroup at the pub later on for the race itself. Arthur was barely mentioned in the preliminaries. He never had the tv cameras on him once! I know there were 39 other horses in the race but Arthur is a previous National winner! They could have given him 30 seconds for goodness sake! 4.30pm and everyone is nervous but excited. No backing out now!
Off he goes!
Race time! False start! Of course there's a false bloomin start! There always is! Pft! Arthur had a really good position up front first time around! And they are off! Thundering down to the first ( I really hate that! There's no need! There's 4 miles to get through not 5 furlongs!) A Trevor Hemmings grey is down and ploughing straight into him whilst he is down was Up For Review. The whole pub gasps. We knew instantly that the horse was gone. The camera's couldn't pan away because it was the head on view so the whole world and his wife had to watch the poor horse go through his final motions. Over the 2nd. Everyone is still on their feet. We had lost Arthur a bit as he was wearing Deb's black and red silks this year, not the Saltire he wore in 2017. Fence after fence and we barely see him but he is still on his feet, still jumping away out the back, still rolling away down the middle keeping out of trouble. A circuit done. A record 37 horses went out for the 2nd circuit. Arthur was still there, jumping away cleanly out the back. Fence after fence rolled by. Horses pulled up, fell or unseated and yet there was Arthur, still bowling along without a care in the world! They head for home. Arthur starts cutting through the pack. Can he do it again!?!? Really!?!? The whole pub is screaming by now! "Come On Arthur! Keep Going! Good Lad! Hup! Come On!!!" Over the last and he is still making up ground! He is grinding them down one by one! Strolling on past! He had got into 4th place! Everyone went wild! He can do it! It's a long was home from the elbow! "Come On Arthur! Your can do it mate!" The blood was pounding through our veins! The adrenaline was soaring through our systems. We were SCREAMING at the tv! Each and everyone of us bouncing up and down screaming him home! Then he folded. He dropped back to 6th. The lack of match fitness from having not actually completing a race this year took it's toll. But still! He had completed! He had got himself a place in the top 10! He had run a bloody brilliant race! We are all still screaming and shouting! Cheering Arthur, Cheering that bloody awesome little horse that is called Tiger Roll! What a race they both ran!
15 minutes later we got a message through from Jaimie ... Arthur ... He was absolutely bloomin well fine! Not a bother on him! What a super star! An hour later he was bad in HIS box! Yes he gets the same box every time he goes to Aintree - he won in 2017 from box 71 so box 71 is his! It has his name on it!
The soaring highs and the devastating lows all within 25 hours! Of course the Facebook page went nuts! I try to make sure every comment is 'liked' in some way shape or form, I don't want people to think we don't care or appreciate them because we do! The public help make the racing and we always try to be as inclusive as we can be. It's hard work at times like this but it is very much worth it! Feel free to go and nosey at Lucinda Russell Racing on Facebook, it is open to all and any dodger pictures most certainly were not from me
Roll on Aintree 2020!
Off to the field for a well earned roll in the Scottish mud!
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You also explained why I couldn't spot Arthur because I was looking for the wrong colours!
