“Just walking into the course again at a meeting like this brought the hairs up on the back of my neck This is where we want to be. It’s what we do it for, it’s the holy of holies.”Elsewhere, Ireland’s brightest young hurdle prospect, Ned Kelly, lost his unbeaten record at the hands of rock-hard Limestone Lad, who notched the 26th win of his career in the Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown.In another sphere, Tiznow, the dual Breeders’ Cup Classic hero, has been retired to stud.. Here we are, six days into the second leg of the Volvo Ocean Race around the world the race and the mighty Assa Abloy is holding on to a very tenuous lead. The racing is extremely close and despite the fact we can’t see the enemy, we all know exactly how each other is doing as we get a position report every six hours. Tyco has had to return to South Africa with a damaged rudder and illbruck had a really bad problem very early on in the race. They were forced to stop sailing and bail out the bow of the boat as it had huge amounts of water in it.We got away reasonably OK until a couple of days ago when a huge wave washed one of our helmsmen, Herv?an, clear through the wheel. As any one who knows this hard man of Brittany would expect, the wheel came off worse – there was not even a small scratch on the man himself The carbon wheel had to be removed and taken down below.

Boat builder Jason Carrington had to spend a whole day repairing it. Although we have another one, steering to leeward became difficult and we took it easy in case we damaged our other wheel. We continued for 12 hours or so with the foot a bit off the gas, but when you do that the fleet mows you down immediately.I still cannot believe how cool and calculated “Rudi” (Rudiger, in case you didn’t guess) is when we read through the position reports. I am nearly crying for every mile lost or jumping up and down with joy for every one gained.Listening to Rudi as he reads, it is like he is already thinking about how to use our advantage and planning the next move Nerves of steel – that’s certainly not me.

I’ve already had more sleepless nights in six days at sea than I can ever remember.Icebergs, gear breaking, have we got the right sails up, is every one wearing their harnesses, and where are the enemy? All this and more rushing through my mind – it’s hard to stay cool despite the temperature outside.. As the fleet speeds eastwards towards the loneliest islands on the planet the crews of the seven Volvo 60s now actively racing in the second leg of the Volvo Ocean Race around the world know they are headed for territory that is not only cold but where the average wind speed is 37 knots. This is an isolated part of the world where speed records fall and where racing campaigns are subjected to the most intense scrutiny. The leaders are due to pass the Kerguelens some time tonight.
Already there has been one casualty.

In the middle of last week the crew of Tyco heard two loud bangs that heralded the end of their competitive leg. dJuice reeled off 404 miles, still 40 miles short of the record set by Lawrie Smith in this same stretch of ocean four years ago, a race record that is unlikely to last more than a few days. Further south News Corp, which suffered early on by heading south too soon, is blasting along in 34 knots of wind from the west. “We’re sitting on 19 knots, surfing in 30 and everything, including the toothbrushes, is stacked down the back of the boat to keep the bow out of the water,” said navigator Ross Field.News Corp is down at 51 degrees south and threatening to move up from fourth place. Having wrestled themselves into the lead and with haunting memories of a disastrous first leg, Frostad is coming down from the north at 50 degrees south to cut News Corp off and protect his lead.In the South Atlantic, Ellen MacArthur and Alain Gautier continue to charge west at an average of 24 knots with a 20-mile lead in their trimaran Foncia Kingfisher in the Transat Jacques Vabre.