'I give Ferny Hollow his head. Tap-tap. Beautiful. You know what you're doing'

Saturday

The plane is on fire, but we’ve not crashed yet. The Railway fences are in the rear-view mirror as we turn right and keep dropping down towards the Pond fence.

The daydreams of winging around Sandown on Chacun Pour Soi in the Tingle Creek have evaporated. The plan of bounce out, fold over and let him run and jump has deteriorated as the race progressed. Jumped the first well, strangely didn’t attack the second, winged the third. Fine but not taking on the first three in the back. Okay at the water. We’d met the first of the Railways spot on but he put down. Thud. Oooft. Not like Chacun. A to B at the middle one but again he doesn’t have a cut at the last one. Thud. Shite.

I can see the shadows stacking up behind me. We leave the rail and head straight into the sun’s glare and towards the Pond fence. A head appears on my outer and there’s no reaction from Chacun, no gear change. A second head appears outside the first. We need a jump to stay in it; I demand a leap, and Chacun does take off. But he screws in the air and we lose ground, drop back to third.