May Blog

I am sorry that I haven’t done a blog recently but I am sure you will see that I have been very busy once I have given you a brief resume of what has happened in the last 3 weeks!

We went to DJs wedding on May 2nd. He was my assistant trainer for 2 seasons and he married a lovely girl called Harriet.

I went to the Tatts Golf Day on the Tuesday at Woburn Abbey and played with my owner Mark Hitchcroft. Hitchy played very well and I played to my usual standard!

We have turned a lot of our horses out early this year and many went out in the first few weeks of May so we will be getting them back in at the beginning of July.

We went to a big Election Day dinner at Barney Windsor-Clive’s and celebrated late into the early hours … what a great result for the Conservatives!

James Campbell-Grey and his wife Gabbs came to stay that weekend and we had a very jolly time. I think they probably went back to London for a rest!

We ran Verano in his first Novice Chase that week. He jumped absolutely beautifully to finish 3^rd. He needs softer ground and is a very exciting prospect for this season. He has now gone on his holidays.

We went to Royal Windsor Horse show and had a very nice lunch with Sue Welch. We watched some very competitive show jumping and caught up with lots of old friends. Hitchy and his lovely daughter Bella came to stay the next day and she had great fun washing the children’s ponies that have just come home for the Summer and having covered the lads with water she then had a ride on both the ponies.

It was then off up to Hull to stay with Andy Stone for Brigitte’s 50th Birthday party. I was a very lively affair and was thoroughly enjoyed by us all. We had a very good breakfast the next day and then set off to Doncaster Sales.

The first day of Doncaster was tough as many of the horses didn’t turn up but we did manage to buy a lovely horse called Morney Wing from Sandra Hughes in Ireland. He is a big scopey 6yr old who has won a novice chase and will hopefully  win more over here. On the Tuesday we sold Always Smiling and then bought a very nice horse called Quebec. He is a 4yr old and is a winner on the flat and a winner of 2 of his 4 runs over hurdles. He will either go handicap hurdling or novice chasing. I looked at the stores on the Wednesday but didn’t manage to buy any. I watched the first race at Warwick from Doncaster as we had To Begin running in it. He managed to beat a 10 to 1 on shot and won at 10 – 1 against! I have never seen 20 points between the 1^st and 2^nd favourites and I can’t remember beating a 10–1 on shot before. He is a very nice horse and should win again.

On the Thursday we went to the Chelsea flower Show to see Katya’s friend Travers and Katie Nettleton who had a wonderful stand there called Garden  Art. We had a lovely day as I always find the flower show fascinating and we bought lots of plants. The beautiful weather did mean that it was a little over crowded though! We then went on to  Northamptonshire to have dinner with Judy and John Hilton who had collected Patrick from school along with their son Oscar. Having had a delicious dinner followed by bridge, table tennis and snooker we finally  got back to Neardown at 1.30 in the morning.

We have had two very nice horses arrive from Germany:

Aspasius - a 3yr old who has been placed in a listed race.

Baltic Storm - a 4yr old who ran in the German Derby last year.

They are 2 very nice horses and hopefully will be winning this season.

We had a big day on Sunday for the launch of the STEEPLECHASERS syndicate which has kindly been set up by Bill Brindle and Andy Stone. We were 28 for lunch in total and it was a great day with 2 0f the 3 horses paraded (Some Kinda Lama is on his holidays) and I think all 12 members are very pleased with our purchases:

Some Kinda Lama

Morney Wing

Quebec

We ran Sands Cove at Uttoxeter and he finished 4^th. We feel that he will benefit from a change of scenery so will be going to the sales next week.

We are busy steam cleaning, disinfecting and painting the yard in preparation for the return of our horses in July.

30th April 2015 - Blog

We worked horses up the back of the hill on Wednesday and To Begin went nicely. I saw an old friend of mine, Simon Christian, having a coffee in The Lambourn Café and ended up asking him for lunch. Katya has been busy in the office so it has been up to me to cook lunch and Simon was very impressed with my culinary skills! After lunch Foxy drove me to Ffos Las where we had two runners. Royal Redemption ran a lovely race over hurdles finishing 2nd when needing the run. It will be his last hurdle race as he will be a lovely chaser for next season and is now going on his Summer break. Our second runner Gowanauthat ran disappointingly but we subsequently had his blood tested which showed he isn’t quite right. I think a lot of the horse so will send him off for his holidays as he needs time recover and look forward to bringing him back for next season. The drive back from Ffos Las took a long time … it is a very long way away!

We schooled Verano and Sureness over  fences for the first time on Thursday with Gavin Sheehan on board (see videos below) and they both jumped very well and I look forward to sending them chasing. That evening we went to Bobby and Ali McEwen’s for dinner.  It was a very jolly evening and it was lovely to see Rodney Powell and Alex.

On Friday we went to the Cheltenham Sales with an owner Terry Simmons who had never been to the sales before. We saw some lovely horses and having been under bidder on quite a few we eventually managed to buy a really nice 4yr old by Daylami called SOME KINDA LAMA (IRE). He was beaten a neck in his only Point to Point and the winner went through the sales an hour earlier (TANARPINO) and was sold for £80000. We paid £30000 for ours so I think we got a bargain. See photograph of SOME KINDA LAMA below.

He is the first horse bought for the STEEPLECHASERS PARTNERSHIP and we still have 2 more to buy for them. There is still one share in STEEPLECHASERS available so do give me a call to discuss if you are interested.

Tony and Rita Stapleton came for Supper at Neardown that evening. We hadn’t seen them for a while as they had been away and as always it was lovely to catch up with them. We had 3 Red Letter Days for breakfast on the Saturday morning and I think they all enjoyed themselves.  We then drove to Michael and Judy Maynard’s for lunch before going to Sandown for AP’s last day as a jockey. I took a photograph of him weighing in for the last time … it was a very sad day. 

We had a lovely lunch with the Maynard’s before going off to the races. The atmosphere at Sandown was very emotional  and I don’t think I have ever seen so many people in tears at the  races before  but it really was the end of an era as we will never see the likes of AP again not only in racing but in any sport. We have all taken the great man slightly for granted as he has been around for a very long time but we are going to be an awful lot worse off without him as he was a great ambassador for our sport.

We went to dinner at James Regard’s in Eastbury that evening. There were lots of interesting people and the food was delicious.

On Sunday morning Bill Brindle (who is running the STEEPLECHASERS PARTNERSHIP with Andy Stone) and his wife Hilly came to see the new horse SOME KINDA LAMA and gave their seal of approval.

Katya and I rode to Ashdown to meet my daughter Tildie and her friend Ella where we all went on a great fun ride to celebrate Tidies’ 15^th Birthday. On the way home we stopped off for an impromptu drink on horseback at Kim Meehan’s  (see photos below)  and then having put our horses away we then returned to Tumbleweed for a delicious lunch.

We then got Iffy to drive us to Heathrow Airport and as per usual the M4 was blocked! We had to take a diversion and iffy had to drive like Lewis Hamilton and we arrived at the airport with only 20 minutes to spare. Katya and I ran through Terminal 2 like Usain Bolt and only just managed to get on the flight. I was sweating like a pig unlike Katya who took it all in her stride!

My man Rheinhardt picked us up from the Airport and we went to my favourite fish restaurant which Katya enjoyed enormously. On the Monday morning we got up at 4.30 and Rheinhardt picked us up from our hotel and drove us to Cologne racecourse where we looked at horses in Peter Schiergen (who we bought SEVENTH SKY from) yard followed by 3 other yards in the same area. We saw 17 horses in total and I liked 2 of them – one of which I rode in the pouring rain. 

We have subsequently done a deal on one (subject to vetting) and are in negotiations for the other one. We flew back to England on the Monday evening.

We had Ian Piper in all morning on Tuesday updating our website. He took some incredible photographs which you can see below. I think the one of Sureness’s mane is a work of art.

Iffy tried to drive me to London that evening as I was meant to be having dinner with Nick Bannister but once again the M4 was a disaster. It took me 4 hours to get to junction 12 and in the end we turned around and came home. Katya had stayed at home to do some office work with our new secretary Tessa who will be joining us in July so I stopped off at the local Indian restaurant and surprised them with a curry.

We had Steve Cole and his girlfriend for breakfast and 2^nd lot on Wednesday. They have just joined the newly formed CMRC which now offers an all-inclusive price of £2000 plus VAT to have a sixteenth share of Cody Wyoming for the season(  there are 2 shares still available so please do call the office if you are interested )and they wanted to see him before he went away for the  summer.  We than had a telephone man in who is now going to put in a very high tech telephone system for us and then we loaded up Superb Story and Nimbus Gale who were going off to Colin Tinkler for their summer  holidays. We also collected Airpur Despois (see below) from Colin’s who has had a short break and is now coming back into training. 

Charlotte and William stayed on Wednesday night and at super we played some very competitive general knowledge games.

We are busy trying to buy horses for the new season and am off to the sales at Newmarket on Friday. We are also going to have our first runners of the season this Friday evening at Fontwell . We are running a nice new horse called TO BEGIN for the first time in a maiden hurdle race and Miller of Glanmire will run in a chase.

We had a very good schooling session this morning.  Sureness and Verano were very good (once again) over fences with James Davies on board this time and we hope to run them both over fences in the very near future.

SEVENTH SKY OFF ON HIS HOLS … WHAT A STAR!

SEVENTH SKY OFF ON HIS HOLS … WHAT A STAR!

On Tuesday there was a drinks party for Rodney Masters at Oaksey House as he is retiring from being the Lambourn Correspondent for the Racing Post. Rodney has been in Lambourn for 27years and was a great ally for the jockeys and trainers in the area – I think he will be a hard act to follow. There was a very good turnout which is testament to how very popular he is within our community.

We had 6 people for breakfast on Wednesday and as usual Katya cooked a delicious breakfast and they all seemed to have a jolly time. Later on I had a salesman attempt to sell me solar panels but he failed to convince me. Having got rid of him I went outside and took delivery of the most beautiful weather vane which is my birthday present from Katya. It will be less expensive to keep than the birthday present I gave to her!!

Harry Bannister came into school Thursday morning and we then left to go to Cheltenham to watch Sureness run in the Listed Mares Race at Cheltenham. We had a fun lunch with Paul Mott, his girlfriend Jacquie and some really fun friends of theirs. They were really pleased to see Sureness looking a picture in the paddock and were hopeful of a big run. She travelled and jumped really well in the race but unfortunately they had over watered the course for her liking so she got stuck in the gluey ground when she went to quicken. We will take her chasing this summer as she is a big mare who wants fast ground.

On Friday I took Evelyn Faber racing to Fontwell where we Had three runners. Murray Mount ran in his first hurdle race. He was very green and was a little precise with his jumping. He will come on a lot for the run mentally. We also ran Verano who made the running. Unfortunately he looked at everything and although he finished 3^rd he probably should have won. I have ridden him out since the race and judging by how fresh he is I suspect the race didn’t take much out of him!! Always Smiling ran in the last race at Fontwell. Her jumping let her down and is off to the sales as she is owner ridden and Harry is looking for something slightly better. Katya organised a very jolly supper party that evening with Ba Gilmour, Nick Gaselee and Anda and Tim Fitzgerald- O’Connor. We were very impressed with Tim’s stamina as he had only arrived back from Bermuda that morning!

We had another busy morning on Saturday with some very nice Red Letter Days folks. I ran Seventh Sky at Ayr in The Future Champion Novice Chase Group 2 in the afternoon and although he ran a little bit flat he still ran very well in defeat picking up £11000 in prize money for second place. This was his 16^th run of the season and in my 23yrs as a trainer I have never had a horse run as often as that. In 16 runs he has only been out of the prize money twice and has won 5 races. He is a credit to his owner John Heron. We are off to Germany this Sunday to try and find another one like him and he is now going away for a well-deserved break.

Iffy drove us to London that night for Natasha Kempner’s 21^st Birthday party at the Belvadere in Holland Park. The fact that we didn’t get home until 3 in the morning is testimony to what a good party it was.

We had a quiet day on Sunday … Riddles dropped in for a drink with Sean Shelley who was looking really well having had an operation recently. Katya and her daughter Charlotte then cooked a delicious lunch.

I rode out 2 lots on Monday and then went to Ascot Sales where I sold Attimo. He had been breaking blood vessels and I thought it was time to move him on.

I played my first game of tennis this season  and was very pleased with my performance but am open to improvement!!

We ran Bridal Suite in cheek pieces for the first time today at Exeter but unfortunately they worked a bit too well and he had run his race by the second last.

We plan to run 2 tomorrow at Ffos Las if the ground is okay but you have to be terribly careful at this time of the year as the ground is getting quick – there were 3 races at Exeter today with only 2 runners in them because of the ground.

We are going to Cheltenham on Friday to buy horses and will keep you informed.

Blog Update

We had Paul Mott down to watch his horse Sureness work on Wednesday as it was her Birthday and he wanted to give her some polos! She went really well and is bang on course for Cheltenham this Thursday.

That afternoon I managed to get all the lawns mowed although this seems to be a thankless task as the grass has started growing with a vengeance.

We have had a house full of children … hence the lack of blog until now.

James Davies came in to school Libeccio on Thursday. It all went to plan as he schooled enthusiastically and we were hoping for a good run on Sunday. I went to Taunton races that afternoon to meet up with Tony Taylor as we had Superb Story running. The ground had dried up a bit and he did not run as well as expected but Dougie Costello said he would not let himself down on the ground as it was too quick. He still finished 4^th and I think he is a lovely prospect for next season and will benefit from being turned away for the summer.

We had a young girl called Tessa Champion ride out second lot for us on Friday. We then had an Aintree lunch and had an enjoyable afternoon watching the action at Aintree. Later on we went to a leaving dinner at The Plough for Rose Osbourne. She has worked for me for nearly 3 years but we do not need a full time secretary so we have had to let her go.

Saturday morning Iffy drove me to Heathrow and I flew up to Edinburgh to attend my nieces wedding. I can’t really understand why anyone would want to get married on Grand National day!! My brother Robbie and I made sure that we got to the church extra early so that we could find a pub in the vicinity as the service finished at 4 leaving us very little time to get there in order to watch the big race. The service was absolutely lovely and luckily for us it finished on time enabling us to make it to the pub in time to shout Many Clouds home. It was a fantastic training performance by Oliver Sherwood and a great day for Lambourn … well done to all involved.

Sadly I missed the celebratory parade the following day as I was flying home but Katya was there to watch it and said that the atmosphere was electric. On the subject of winners. We ran Libeccio up at Market Rasen that afternoon. He was given a really good ride by James Davies and went on to win his race by ¾ of a length. It has taken a bit of time for the penny to drop with him but there should be more to come from him this summer.

Native Explorer ran at Chepstow on Saturday and we also had hoped for a good run. Unfortunately she found the ground too quick and did not let herself down and she definitely needs a cut in the ground.

I rode out two lots on Monday morning and was delighted with Seventh Sky who we plan to run at Ayr on Saturday. We do not have many runners this week but have got Cheltenham on Thursday ( Sureness ), Fontwell on Friday ( Always Smiling, Verano and Murray Mount ) and Ayr on Saturday ( Seventh Sky ). The runners are all ground dependent but it would be great to have a few more winners.