Back in the UK Horsing Around

Early in the year we bought a share in a promising young Irish stayer Masoun, he's actually French but domiciled in Ireland. Initially he was locked and loaded to run at Royal Ascot - one of the world's most prestigious race carnivals full of pomp and ceremony with the Royal family in attendance each day. It was too good an opportunity to miss, so we booked our tickets and sorted an unscheduled and unbudgeted trip to London for 3 weeks.

Unfortunately, Masoun had a few little setbacks early in his preparation, so his rating points dropped, and he was touch and go to run. We pressed on figuring even if he didn't run to be able to experience Royal Ascot again would be a reasonable consolation prize.

It's been a real roller coaster and came down to having to win one race at Leopardstown in Ireland - The 1878 At 3Arena Apprentice Handicap - to have any show of getting to the Big Dance! The 1800 metre distance was a fraction short, he was carrying extra weight and a very wide draw - drawn 12 of 14 - was also against him. Positives were track conditions suited and he can actually run really fast. We couldn't get to Ireland unfortunately but watched nervously from our local betting shop.

We needn't have worried Masoun jumped went to the front and despite being passed 800m from home kicked on and won with ease. It was very exciting! Now we have to wait and see if and how much his handicap goes up to see if he makes the field. Given his current handicap of 86 and the relative strength of the race the handicapper would likely give him between 0-4 points (more likely lower than higher) - he'll need to have minimum handicap of 89 to make Royal Ascot field so very much touch and go!

We flew to the UK on Tuesday and (think unbudgeted trip) flew British Airways as their premium economy was about $1200 cheaper per seat than the other airlines. Bonus for us is that BA share the southern hemisphere route and we flew Air NZ to Hong Kong and will fly Singapore Airlines on the Singapore to Auckland home league. Air NZ premium economy was great, as was the service. I'm not always a fan of our national carrier but they were exceptional this time. There's a reason why British Airways premium economy was so cheap (as you would expect) it was pretty crappy - but you gets what you pay for! We spent 5 hours in Hong Kong airport in transit and that was pretty average to.

Main thing was we arrive at Heathrow safe and sound at 6.30am Wednesday morning.

We're staying in the Paddington area (actually Lancaster Gate just next door) at the same place we based ourselves last time - Westbourne Hyde Park. When we arrived, we dropped our bags and went for a big walk around Hyde Park (5 minutes away) to stretch our legs and get some fresh air. The park was very quiet at that time of the morning, so it was a very pleasant stroll. We then had a wonder around Paddington to refamiliarize ourselves, followed the canal to Little Venice, doubled back and ended up at

the Victoria Pub, a classic traditional English pub and one of our favourites. They didn't disappoint with an outstanding beef pie and a very smooth pint of Frontier lager.

All in all, it was a great day and a very good start to our break.