Wednesday 5 August

It has been a while since the last update - apologies, we have been a bit busy. We have had a runner, and we have been to the sales - both with varying degrees of success. First to the runner - Figarella Borget had her third run over hurdles. She was fourth on debut, but had since fallen at the last in Stratford. All we needed was a clear round - she is unlikely to win a level weights novice hurdle, and needs a handicap mark to be competitive - to do this she needs to have run three times over hurdles getting to the back of the second last each time to give the handicapper a chance to assess her ability. A clear round and we would have it in the bag - sadly not to be - having been over brave and dived at the last in the home straight first time round, she then proceeded to 'let fly' at the last in the back straight, but this time forgot to get more than 6 inches off of the ground, giving herself and Ciaran a nasty fall. Both have emerged unscathed thankfully - and FB will try again at the end of August. Hopefully she will get a clear round, and then we can get her in the right races. We finally got to the sales with four horses last week. It was a mixed week, with a couple selling well and a couple not so well. The Crillon half brother to the well touted Coachman that we sold last year went to the same trainer, Denis Murphy for £37,000, the No Risk At All gelding was too small for the sale he was in - something I was fearful of when we were persuaded to enter him - although as things turned out he would have been sold at exactly the same time if he had been entered elsewhere, but that was due to the sales being re jigged due to covid restrictions, and the English horses that were due to sell in either of the big sales in Ireland going into a Supplementary catalogue in Doncaster, Despite getting a few derisory offers for him, he was eventually sold privately to an owner with Kayley Woollacott. The other horse in the Supplementary Catalogue was Horse Power, a good looking son of Coastal Path. He too failed to reach his reserve, again, mainly due to the fact that for some reason the market didn't think that 16.1hh was big enough - and just wanted huge horses. Again despite receiving a number of offers that were both embarrassing to us and the offerer, he will be going to a new home very shortly. Fergal O'Brien had seen the horse before the sale and loved him - so he will be heading to Gloucestershire in a short while, after he has recovered from the excitement of his week at the sales!! So we cleared the decks for the week, and despite the horses not making what we had thought they may - we have to be happy that they are all going to new homes. Despite a very sticky trade, that was hugely selective the syndicate that own the three that were catalogued on the Monday will still be on the right side, and to do that with all that is going on in the world at present is no mean feat! We had a blank day on Tuesday as the Manduro gelding that we had bought for Boleyn Bloodstock Ltd to sell in this section was not accepted, and so was pushed on to the third day of sales. He was also due to be second in the ring - and so expectations were not high for him, despite him being a cracking, athletic and well balanced horse. At 16.0hh we all thought he would struggle to find a home, and had resigned ourselves to bringing him home - in fact his transport was booked. This looked even more likely when the first lot of the day was withdrawn, and he strode into the ring first. I had decided he was not going to be given away - I had had enough of embarrassing offers on the Monday - so we set the bar where we needed to. Thankfully we were not alone in thinking he was a cracker, and he went past his reserve, in the end settling on £22,000 a price that topped his section of the sale, and possibly justifying our thoughts that he should have been catalogued elsewhere in the sale. He has gone to Richard Hawker in Somerset. We wish all the new connections of the horses the best of luck with them! We have one left to sell, a cracking son of Saddler Maker that heads to the Goffs Landrover Sale in Kildare next week. He is one of the last Saddler Makers and we are looking forward to offering him. We have now turned our attention to restocking, and should be adding to the squad this week with a bit of luck. A very exciting individual - more on that when we have it. We are also getting very close to adding another horse in training to the team for a new syndicate - and I am sure that this will be a fantastic addition. The horses that we have in training are all good, and are all now back in their stables. Blue Bikini, Queenohearts and Classic Ben were the last three to return to Edmunds on Friday. The horses that came in earlier are all now cantering - including Yauthym who has been back down in Fergal O'Briens since July 1st. Another who is down in that neck of the woods is San Seb, who is enjoying the facilities at Jason Maguire's Ivy Lodge Farm. Jason has a salt water spa, a water treadmill and other top class facilities, including a deep sand gallop, and SS will enjoy all of it whilst being pre trained in an attempt to get him back on track after injury. Land League is really well, and as enthusiastic as ever - he is ready to run and is entered in Southwell next week.