Lady Maairy of Corridge goes racing

LADY MAAIRY GOES RACING

Yes I know this blog site is called GLOBAL adventures of Northumbrian Sheep. So an invite to Whalton show, a village only about 5 miles from our flock’s home pastures, may not qualify and even seem a bit un-adventurous. However Dick said I ought to come along and have a close look at his latest mad-cap idea! After all I have a spare week before jetting off to New Zealand, where there’s a seat at the Rugby World Cup final with my name on, and what harm can I come to at a quiet, English country village show?

‘SHEEP RACING’ proclaimed the poster I saw on the way in. Interesting! At least he surely can’t expect me to race, what with my short legs. I presume that’s why we’ve brought the trailer with 4 of our Coloured Ryeland ewes, although some of their legs aren’t much longer! The days racing would apparently consist of 4, four sheep races, with the winners of each race appearing in the grand final and is the second year of action at this show.

A celebrity at last – the large silver box on a pole announced “ The Gold cup will be presented by Lady Maairy of Corridge, charity worker and World traveller extraordinaire”, which made me feel very important. The crowd of nearly 500 cheered as I was invited to go and sit with the jockeys as they waited for their mounts (pic 1). Here i am with Leicester Sheepott, ands his /her 3 colleagues who tell me their experience relates to an appearance at the first such competition last year when apparently, Leicester had been dragged along the ground when his saddle slipped, which sounds really dangerous. He has been promised an improved design this year!

Now I can take a joke as well as the next ewe but actually attaching me to Leicester’s lap, akin to a twin sky-dive and then strapping us both to a ‘bucking bronco’ is taking things a bit too far, I hadn’t signed up for this today! However as we were in the starting pen with the other 3 sheep in the first race of the day – The Beresford Arms Handicap – I couldn’t help but start to get excited. The 70 yard horseshoe shaped track was laid out in front of us, and I could see the first of the two fences just before the bend, the crowd bayed, the starting gates were flung open and off we flew!

Or off we should have flown. ‘Mamma Mia’ (we had the musically themed mounts) seemed much more interested in whether the man who opened the gates had any spare food and despite my, Leicester and a couple of shepherds waving sticks, Mia stoically refused to break into a trot never mind a canter and the race was all over before we’d got started.

That was it I was hooked, we could only do better and there was no way they were getting me off the saddle now! Unfortunately with ‘Milly The moocher’ we fared little better in the next race, but in the 3^rd, in ‘Lilly A-lamb’ we had a star! As our only champion from last year she certainly knew her way round the track and set up a new course record winning by 10 lengths! As you can see at this speed I found the event a horn-raising experience!

Although we thought we were a sure thing for the final and the wagers in our favour were coming in thick and fast, things didn’t go according to plan! The race was a disaster and should have been the subject of a stewards enquiry as I sheep bolted while the other 3 (including Lilly) got very confused and turned round so that all three were back in the starting pen as the victor crossed the line! What a let-down . Still that’s another new experience for sheep-kind. Count me in for next year!