MARIE MCCABE

Weblog:  The wife of leading all-weather trainer Alan McCabe with her weekly diary

It's all in the preparation

This week has been all about preparation and clearing the decks. I have been busier than Mrs Tiggywinkle and now even have gaps on the surface ofmy desk where I can see the wood.

I had forgotten what my desk was made of - it seemed to be constructed of the most humungous pile of jumbled paperwork but some rather intensive filing has proven otherwise and I am beginning to feel more organised.

The months between October and March are fairly frenetic for a flat trainer. Their names may not be bandied about the public forums quite so much, but behind the scenes it can be madly busy.

It starts in the autumn with the seemingly endless rounds of sales. Yearling sales, horses in training sales, breeding sales - they're all there, both in capacity as buyer and vendor. In Doncaster on Tuesday and Wednesday, Newmarket Friday for weeks on end.

Then the yearlings start arriving. Five from the sales, a couple of homebreds from a small owner-breeder, several more from a
commercial breeder.

All are broken in and ridden away as the secretary tries to make sense of the paperwork. And boy, is there alot of paperwork.

I have taken to storing checklists on my computer so nothing gets missed. I have been doing this job for sixteen years and the red tape is no less tangly than it was when Istarted out and I live in fear of forgetting an important detail.

This week I have begun to harass our owners into naming their two-year-olds as some of them will be ready early and an unnamed horse cannot be entered for a race (unless it's an early-closer, like a sales race or the Derby).

We have had quite a few named already - some good, some not so good. Naturally, those names I have been responsible for are beyond reproach as I take the choosing of a name very seriously. I have even named horses for Godolphin in the past.

Admittedly, none of the good ones (or even any you would have heard of) but it wasn't because they were given bad names.

This year we have more than ever to sort out and many of our
owners are also new to us, so I have to ensure that all their own
paperwork is in order so as to avoid any eleventh hour panic stations when their horse comes to run.

It's a nice problem to have, though. In times of national hardship I count my blessings every day and feel so very grateful for all the owners we have be they loyal old friends or new.

They have sent us some lovely types of horses to train this year and I couldn't be more pleased, however many forms I have to fill out.