Betfair Official Blog

The day Rosemary came good

Darrell Williams with his latest installment of the life and times of Lockham Rosemary

The idea of stepping Lockham Rosemary up to eight bends appeared a logical one. While she was running well enough over the six bend trip, her lack of a gear change wasn't allowing her to produce that killer punch to see off the opposition.

It was a pretty weak E3 that she was entered for in late March 2002 for her first venture over the marathon trip, although with Catford being something of a sharp circuit, the 718m trip sat at the lower end of the scale as regards true tests of stamina. The bookies fancied her a bit as well, sending her off at 5/2, and while Rosie was not renowned as an early paced runner over her standard trip, against this opposition we thoroughly expected her to sit very close to the speed, if not actually lead. And lead she did, even earning a 'quickly away' in the official comments, and despite running very wide she was away and gone. For reasons I can't quite remember, although I think I must have been working elsewhere, I was listening to the race on the telephone, but as it started to reach a climax it soon became apparent that Rosie was not going to be the next marathon sensation.

The 'wheels' quite literally came off, as her big lead succumbed to nothing nearing the final two bends, and she trailed in a well beaten fourth. She had blatantly not stayed the distance. 'Plan B' had not worked.

That first win since taking over Rosie was beginning to look as if it would never come. My aspiration that she might be an S1 (top grade) bitch was now just a false memory. Rosie had been in freefall through the grades since we bought her, and now we were staring at a race in the dreaded basement grade, S8! I remember thinking that while it was all a bit embarrassing, maybe one race in the bottom level to get her confidence back might not be too bad, and then she could start to climb the pyramid again. It was a typical owner's reaction really, always looking for a crumb of comfort whatever the reality of the situation.

But this time my thoughts were to prove spot on. Our little girl not only won her S8, making all the running to score by four lengths, she clocked such a good time for the grade that the racing manager hammered her with a two grade penalty for her next race! Now while that's the equivalent of being hit with a speeding fine and a parking ticket on the same day, on this occasion we really didn't give care. After almost a dozen races of trying, Lockham Rosemary had finally won a race for us, the Williams family.

It was our moment, and of course, it was Rosie's. The £50 prize money was immaterial, the fact that we were finally collecting from the bookmakers and the tote after months of it all being one way traffic was just a nice bonus. For those few minutes we were the most important people at Catford Stadium - the 'well dones' were gratefully accepted, the comments about how well she'd run as we watched the replay again, as many times as they'd show it, were graciously acknowledged. This time our dog was a winner, and it was a great feeling.