Monday, 30 January 2017

We are getting a bit bored as we haven't got anything to run right now.I got back from a break to Thailand last Tuesday and was standing on the gallops the next day when it was -6 thinking why didn't I stay another week.
The cold weather has  stopped and we now have the rain which is making the ground very testing.II watched some very good racing from Cheltenham on Saturday but the whole day was marred by the death of Many Clouds which really brings to home what wonderful brave creatures we look after in our business.We all used to see him on the gallops every day with his regular rider Nathan onboard and I suppose we just took it for granted that he would be there every day.Its a very up and down game we are in and it's tragic for everyone involved with 'Clouds' but as Oliver Sherwood said this morning on the gallops 'life goes on' and he is absolutely right as it does!
I have sent out some brochures for our new club (The 25 Club) and have had a very positive response so far. So hopefully we can buy four nice horses in the spring for the club to go to war with next season and run in the better races.
All the horses are well and cantering away so should start getting busy in about two weeks.

Tuesday, 24 January 2017

We have had very few runners lately as we have done so many wind operations on all of them that we don,t have many to run at the moment which is a bit frustrating .
I ran Wishicould at Newbury last Wednesday and she ran a really nice race to finish third although she is crying out for three miles and should win when we find her the right race . At Wincanton on the Thursday we ran Morney Wing who was very disappointing having won his last race and was eventually pulled up.I am convinced that it was the ground that did for him as he was never travelling.
On Saturday we ran Seventh Sky in the Peter Marsh at Haydock and he never got his way as they went flat out from the start.which didn't suit him at all. There was a very expensive French horse in the race called Alary who was having his first run over here and had been hyped up as a Gold Cup contender. The horse was pulled up after which his jockey was heard to say 'I hope they kept the receipt'!
Only have Like The Sound to run in the next few days so things will be a bit quiet.
I got back this morning having had a week away to find this weather a little bit on the cold side!

Tuesday, 3 January 2017

We all had a very busy Christmas and just about survived. I had my ex wife,kids,sister and my divorce lawyer round for Christmas lunch and it was very jolly.
We had a few runners at Wetherby on Boxing Day but no great excitements .I ran a nice mare last Saturday called Wishicould and she ran a really good race to be placed in her first hurdle .
I had a very jolly dinner for twelve people on New Years Eve which got a bit messy in the end.I thought it would be great fun to see the New Year in by drinking champagne in my hot tub with all the others. I also thought it would be a good idea to put bubble bath into the hot tub to liven things up a bit. Well nine of us got in and although it was a bit squashed you couldn't see anyone as the foam was about five feet high! I was trying to drink a glass of Bollinger but with three inches of foam on it,it looked more like a pint of Guiness !
I got up on Sunday morning and when I opened the curtains I thought it had been snowing as my lawn was white. On closer inspection it turned out to be foam from the hot tub and a lot of it we could have built a foam man.
On Monday we went to Plumpton with Morney Wing for the Sussex National and I really fancied him as he had been acting like a two year old for the last fortnight.We had Noel Fehily riding and ground was right for him. Then Noel was stood down before the race with flu having ridden the first winner so we had to get Paddy Brennan as a last minute replacement.
Everything went well in the race he jumped beautifully and travelled easily winning fairly nicely in the end. It was a nice race to win on a Bank Holiday Monday especially as the owners are a very good bunch and have supported the yard by having three very nice horses.
We are having a good season and need to get some more horses for the next campaign. At least this year has started better than the last one!