Grand National Steeplechase, Cats, and Weather

It's another beautiful morning, but the weather folks are saying that we'll be getting 8 to 14 inches of snow Monday night and Tuesday. It was in the upper 60s yesterday, and that is also the estimated high for today. Tomorrow, they say the high will be in the 50s, and that Tuesday we'll stay below the freezing mark. Spring in the Rockies is always interesting!

  Maggie May started singing for her breakfast at 3 this morning... I closed my bedroom door, and slept until the usual 5:30, before getting up to feed her. Ooch was very alert this morning, and insisted on supervising the cleaning of his litter box. He ate well yesterday and was chowing down on his breakfast when I left this morning. My kits scarfed their breakfast and have been outside, chasing each other in the sunshine this morning. Lovey is now in the cat tree, while Nedi is "stalking" the squirrels. And I really enjoyed seeing all of the episodes that have shown (so far) of Vikings on the History Channel last night... and there's a new episode tonight! Yahoo!

  Yesterday, Goldencents was the winner of the Santa Anita Derby, with Flashback second, and Super Ninety Nine third. But the horse race I was most interested in was run in Liverpool, England yesterday - the Grand National Steeplechase at Aintree. The length of the race is 4 1/2 miles, and the horses jump 30 obstacles during the race. In the last two runnings, two horses have died on course each year, from bad falls. This year, two horses fell, but were not injured; six jockeys also fell without injury. A full field of 40 horses started the course, with only 17 crossing the finish line. Seabass was the betting favorite (at 11 to 2) and his jockey was hoping to become the first female jockey to win the Grand National. Seabass tired badly and finished 13th. The turf was rated good to soft, and a 66 to 1 long shot was the winner. Auroras Encore, an 11-year-old bay gelding, by Second Empire, won the event by 9 lengths. The purse was 975,000 British pounds; coming in second was Cappa Bleu, and in third was Teaforthree. It was a rousing finish.