Hi All,

Here is the rather belated report following Muffin's run at Lingfield on Thursday.

Tim and I had a leisurely hours drive down to Lingfield, on what was a beautifully sunny November day.We arrived in plenty of time to have lunch and then made our way to the stands for the first race.

We met up with Stuart, Judy and Neil just before the second race, after which we all retreated to the Bar.

Stuart said that Muffin was fit and well, although Judy didn't think he would win best turned out, as because this was his last race of the season, they hadn't clipped him, and he was just starting to grow his winter coat.

Before Muffin's race, we made our way to the saddling enclosure to see him, and watch the preparations. When he emerged, he looked even bigger than ever, and seemed happy, as ever, to be there.

Somewhat unusually, he behaved impeccably in the parade ring, and he looked magnificent, despite his winter growth.

We met up with Fergus and took the opportunity to thank him, on behalf of the guild, for his efforts this season. The plan was to see how the race unfolded, and try to keep up with the pace. We knew that this was going to be a tough race, so I don't think any of us had any great expectations, but he did manage to keep up there for a while, but after the race, Fergus reported that Muffin was tanking for a bit, and then just seemed to flatten out towards the end.

Unfortunately, he didn't finish at the front of the pack, coming, I think, 10th out of 13, with the pre- race favourite coming in after him, so not too bad, and considering that he was up against some strong opposition, ie, The Kiddykid, Forest Dane etc, the boy did good! To give some perspective, the eventual winner, was initially bought for $900,000.

Muffin seemed to enjoy himself, and showed no signs of fatigue after the race, and was heading home to begin his winter holiday - Stuart did suggest Antigua this time of year, but I didn't think we could stretch the budget thus far - even though he has been an absolute super-star for us this year - but I told Stuart we could probably run to an extra couple of carrots instead!!

We thanked Stuart, Judy and the team, again, for all their efforts, in what has been an amazing season.

Bye for now.

Jax