Monday 10 August

This years round of National Hunt Store sales will soon be over for us. We have one left to sell in the Goffs Landrover Sale on Wednesday. They had hoped to get UK buyers special dispensation to tavel to the sale and not have to quarantine for the 14 days prior, but sadly that didn't happen - so there will be no UK buyers on site. Last Friday, when the entire county of Kildare, where the sales take place, was put into a local lockdown - it actually looked highly unlkely that the sale would take place at all - but it does (for now anyway). We have a cracking son of Saddler Maker going through the ring on Wednesday. He is from the last crop of the ill fated sire, and we are looking forward to showing him. Sadly I won't be there, but fingers crossed he goes well. Land League runs this afternoon - he has had a bit of time off due to the Covid pandemic, but he seems in great form at home. He has had a multitude of problems over his career, and hopefully he shows he still enjoys it this afternoon. Figarella Borget is well, she has fallen the last twice, and we had been keen to see her run from a handicap mark by now. To date she has looked like she has moderate ability - and not being one to waste peoples money - I sent a text to all her owners last week to cnavas opinion about her short term future as a race mare. It didn't get me far, as the overriding response was for everyone to say they would go with the majority - but the underlying sentiment was not to put her at risk for the sake of it. For this reason she will have one more run, and unless she shows a considerable improvement, she will be off to another career in one piece. A shame as we expected so much more from her when we got her as a 2 yr old - a 3/4 sister to the great Sprinter Sacre, she was always going to be on the small side, but we had hoped she would strengthen and improve - sadly things don't always trun out how you hoped they would. I will be replacing her, should she be retired, and look froward to offering her syndicate something with a bit more of a future. Talking about the future - I know a few are interested in the breeding side of things, and I already have a couple of interested parties in the following idea- so I am just testing the water to see if there is any interest in a breeding syndicate. With Figgys pedigree I had hoped to be able to offer her when her racing career was over, but that isn't an option for us - so instead I am considering offering Savingforvegas for 12 months, She has bred 3 lovely foals, the latest of which is a cracking son of Blue Bresil. He is so nice, we decided to send her back to the stallion this spring, and she is in foal to him again, so the hard part is done! The Lease would be for 12 months from the time that her current foal is weaned in a few weeks, and go through until next years foal is weaned. The syndicate that lease her will pay the covering fee for this year and her keep for 12 months, and will own the foal that is born in 2021. This will be retained to race, or could sell if the finances look favourable,and the syndicate would be responsible for it's keep after it is weaned and the lease on Savingforvegas has terminated. Costs will depend on the number of interested pafrties, and of course I would be willing to retain a proportion of the shares - so let me know if you are interested and I can do the maths.