Trains and Trainers
At last the weather made a turn for the better, and not before time. A good job too, as this week was spent out and about at the sales, a yard visit, a days racing in Yorkshire, along with a very long day in Twickenham!
All the horses continue in good form, and all those that are in work are looking and moving really well, most are nearing the stage where they just start to stride on a touch and get to go upsides. With the greatest of irony – the only one that we had a slight scare with this week was the one that isn’t back in work yet. Intrepide Sud, who remains in the field at Ivy Lodge Farm was found to be lame when Jason checked round at 9.00 on Wednesday evening. In the gathering gloom he got him on the lorry and back to the yard where he was assessed by the farrier and the vet on Thursday morning. Quite often after a spell of wet weather, horses can develop an abscess in their hoof, and if you have ever bruised a finger that has resulted in pressure under a nail, you will know how painful that can be. Thankfully this is quite common and usually cleared up in a couple of days. On this occasion the farrier could find no sign of an abscess, so the vet was called. Fortunately, his diagnosis was also an easy fix and by Friday IS was walking out sound and back to normal.
Intrepide Sud all good on Friday morning.
There is a break in the National Hunt racing programme at this time of year – not a long one but enough time to let jockeys and trainers get away for a few days to recharge the batteries. Judging by their twitter pages a lot of jockeys are having a whale of a time in the sunshine in all parts of the globe! A couple of our trainers are also grabbing a break. One of those is Olly Murphy, but before he went on Monday he sent across another video – this one of Itchy Feet looking fantastic before he headed out to exercise. Olly is delighted with him, and we will sit down together in a couple of weeks and put a plan together for him, if not for the whole season – certainly for the initial part – where he will make his seasonal debut etc. There are so many options with Itchy, it would not be wise to set out a plan and try to stick rigidly to it, best to create a framework, and see where he takes us. Rest assured he will be running in some very nice handicaps on some very big days throughout the season! If we can have the season we had last year with him it would be fantastic, he won a nice handicap, was second in a Grade 2, and picked up over £23,000 in owners prizemoney! Also at Warren Chase, Auditoria is also in great form and doing 1m4f canters on the sand gallop now. Tintagel Queen who only went back into training a couple of weeks ago is looking great, but obviously a month behind the other two.
Itchy Feet
Tuesday, we headed north to the Goffs UK August sale in Doncaster. A mixed sale of national hunt horses in training, stores, breeding stock and a few flat horses too – something for everyone – nothing for us. Instead, it was horsebox duty for Atacanter, with the new demonstrator on the stand. We dropped the box of at the sales and headed to the hotel, a quick couple in the Hilton to rehydrate, and then on to The Earl of Doncaster where we were staying for the night. It is amazing what you see in Doncaster – Tuesday evening no exception!
The things you see in Donny!
Dinner was once again in Vivos just up the road – another fantastic meal, you must go there if you are in town! Good to catch up with a few folks back at the hotel bar and a reasonably early night!
Wednesday at the sales, a better crowd than I had expected, and it started with a rush for us, exceptionally busy first thing and great to see existing customers adding to their already large fleet. Trade for the horses seemed good too – Sally on duty and doing the bidding as Fergal O’Brien Racing bagged the top lot for existing owners Lee and Mark Craze. Lee and Mark are cousins, and a great pair of blokes and we wish them the very best of luck with their new horse – Third Time Lucki.
The new demonstrator on show at Goffs.
Nice to get a video form Jason Maguire on Wednesday with an update on Cloud Dancers progress. He is really happy with him. CD is doing plenty of cantering on the sand gallop and will be ready to head back to Gary Moore at the end of August or beginning of September. We are really looking forward to this season with CD – he has a very bright future, already a winner over hurdles, he remains a novice for the whole of this season, and it is hoped that he will prove up to contesting some very nice novice hurdles over the winter. He was very weak and backward last season, but still managed to win a national hunt juvenile hurdle in Newbury, and although the form of the race is nothing special – it was more about the way he did it – he was very green, as he had been on debut in a Listed Bumper in Cheltenham on New Years day where he still managed to finish 7th, but in Newbury when the penny dropped between the last 2 flights, he looked very impressive, and with a step up in trip likely to suit along the way – he is one we can’t wait to see this term! Amazingly – still one share available – although he is showing up so nicely I think the current owner may be looking at finding a way to keep the share! Have a look at him on the For Sale Page before he changes his mind!
Cloud Dancer
Thursday, I had planned to go to Ravenswell and meet up with Steve and Dawn to see their new girl Maria’s Flame – sadly that day coincided with building work commencing on the new barn at the yard, and the arrival of an awful lot of plant (What is the collective noun for a lot of plant?) and machinery. With that sort of disruption going on Fergal asked if we could postpone the visit, so instead of heading to the Cotswolds, we instead made our way to Barbury Castle to pay our first visit to Alan King and see the unnamed 3yr old Jukebox Jury filly we have in training with him. We picked some morning, the estate looking fantastic in the sunshine. I think Kingy takes the prize for the most picturesque yard that we visit – it is simply spectacular! It was good to get a tour round the estate from the trainer and see both yards – his horses look fantastic. After seeing them in the arena at the main yard, we headed over to the Sharpridge yard to see a few more warm up there before heading up to the hill gallop to see them exercise. Our Filly came up twice and did it very nicely. She is just doing 2 steady canters at present, but next week she will be striding on upsides. Alan very much likes what he sees in her at the moment, and that along with her outstanding pedigree would suggest that there will be plenty of fun to be had with her this season. We hope to get her out in a junior bumper early in the season, and then make a plan for her season based on that initial run – she could remain in bumpers and head to Cheltenham on New Years Day – or switch to the National Hunt Juvenile Hurdles – she has already done plenty of schooling and is ready for that if needed. There are a handful of shares left in her – she is great value – as she already has a nice value as a broodmare when her racing days are over – and that could get even better, as her full brother is highly regarded, won his only Irish Point to Point and made 170,000 at the Punchestown Sale in April. Have a look at her on the For Sale Page and get in touch – a visit to Barbury Castle is worth the purchase price alone!
What a place!
Jukebox Jury filly warms up
The master trainer casts his eye over her between canters
She's a good looking girl!
Back home by lunchtime, and time to get Owners Badges sorted for Reflexion Faites owners who would be travelling to Thirsk on Friday to see her run. After a bit of back and forth with the team at the track, they were all accommodated – thanks so much to Erin and the team at the Thirsk – a great help! When we had got those sorted I felt I had earned a pint – and luckily we had a night out at N0.77 in Caxton again. Regular readers will know that we love this place – great Thai food and a relaxed fun atmosphere. Good to catch up with Matt and Sarah, and a good night had by all – although the service wasn’t up to it’s usual high standard – they looked a bit under done on the staff front – food makes up for it though, and the company was excellent as always!
Friday we made the trip up to Thirsk – a new course for me – I have done pretty much all of the National Hunt Tracks now, bar a few in the very frozen north, but understandably I am lagging on the courses that host solely flat racing, so it was nice to visit Thirsk on a sunny summers afternoon! It is a really nice track – and well worth a visit. We were made to feel very welcome, and there was a huge crowd for a Friday afternoon! I had swung round and collected Matt and Nick from Godmanchester, and we were soon making great progress up the A1, as usual the roadworks above Doncaster caused a bit of a delay, but we got up there in good time. Sadly, a couple of her owners were forced to turn back and head home as they got caught in a tail back caused by an accident around Newark and didn’t get to see RF run. Those that made it saw her run another nice race. She looked fantastic in the paddock, and now that we have settled on her trip for the time being we hoped she could build on her Sandown run last month. Benoit de la Sayette once again in the plate, and the plan was to break and get some cover behind the leaders, before challenging on the stand side, making the most of her high draw on what is often the favoured stands rail. She broke well and Benoit tucked her in behind, she then made up an awful lot of ground mid race travelling well. By the time she came off the bridle it looked as though the leaders had got away slightly, but she put her head down and stayed on really nicely to the line. Everyone very happy with her – she is definitely going the right way, and Benoit feels that we can now adopt slightly different tactics with her next time, and that her debut win is not too far away. She has the options of maiden/novice company or nurserys in the future, and if we can find the right one, she should go very close next time. The winner of the race was a gorgeous filly in the parade ring, and looks to have a nice future, so it will probably turn out to be a nice enough fillys novice. One thing is for sure – there is lots of fun to be had with her! A great day in glorious weather – we left just before the last – just so that Nick didn’t do his wallet any more damage and headed home. A fun day – good company for the journey and a good result too! Reflexion Faite has come out of her race well and will go again in 2/3 weeks.
Reflexion Faite pre race
Reflexion Faite after her third place.
Saturday we headed for Twickenham to see England take on Wales in a World Cup warm up match. Tickets kindly donated by a friend who had got them through ‘Tickets For Troops’ and couldn’t go himself. Not the usual trip, this one did involve Guiness – just not as much as usual – and as it transpired that was a good job! The journey in was OK, just one cancelled train as we waited on the platform at Waterloo, but a quick move across the station and we were soon on the move in the usual packed carriages to Twickenham. I had no great expectations of the game itself – Wales are only an OK side by international standards, and they had made England look very ordinary last week in Cardiff, so with two similar sides on show I didn’t expect a great spectacle – but what we got was too bad to have imagined pre game. It was the worst international I have ever witnessed, so stop start, and no enterprise anywhere on the pitch. By the 70th minute, England had 3 in the sin bin, and Wales had scored an easy try, so we decided to cut our losses and head for the station. Of course – it was always going to happen - my ‘Olly Bell’ moment. Olly had left the cricket world cup final before Englands dramatic super over victory at Lords, and as we headed for the train we could hear the roars of the crowd signalling an England try, which had been scored right under the seats we had vacated! To be fair, I was that disappointed by the England performance, and annoyed by the man who, although having a English, west country accent was insistent in shouting WALES, WALES in my ear for the entire match, that I didn’t care! On the upside we were at the front of the queue for the first train back to town. But, and here is the bit that made me grateful that we did leave slightly early, when someone decided to sit on the tracks at Richmond, and South West Trains were forced to turn off the power and cancel all the trains both ways between Richmond and Twickenham we were not stuck in the crowd way back at the stadium, when it became evident that things were not moving, we got off the platform, over the footbridge and up to the Royal Oak on Richmond Road, a haunt we have used plenty in the past. A Guiness and a planning meeting ensued, before we decided to walk back to Richmond and grab the tube back to Victoria and then on to St Pancras. We finally got home at midnight – but had got our steps in! A long day – a very bad match – all I can say is that I was very grateful I didn’t pay for the tickets – and that I don’t have to use the trains very often – I’m not sure how those that rely on the railway to travel ever keep their cool!
Twickenham - great stadium -, hell to get too!
Around the rest – although we didn’t get to Ravensell this week, all the team there are well. Plenty are now on the hill gallop, with only Volkovka a little behind as she didn’t return to training until a couple of weeks ago. Blue Bikini, Greyval, Mamoon Star and Fortune Forever are all in great order and have started on the hill gallop and Hidden Beauty and Maria’s Flame are moving great on the round.
Donald McCain was another trainer to grab a few days in the sun last week, and I will be in to see him and catch up on Old Blue Eyes and Dino Bellagio this coming week. Before he packed his speedos Donald has said how pleased he was with both – Dino his usual exuberant self, and he thinks that Old Blue Eyes is a very nice horse!
In other news – the office is now back! That has been a strain – but we are not finished – new fitted cupboards and wardrobes in the house and a lot of new carpets – hopefully we should be straight again in a few weeks!
Plans next week – a visit to McCains – followed by a stop off to see our yearling filly – a half sister to Hidden Beauty who is also in Cheshire along with lots of foals, followed by a meeting about our new venture. I hope to get to Olly Murphys one day as well and will also see if I can’t get to see the horses at The Elms. There will be news next week of the dates for Stable Visits – really looking forward to catching up with loads of owners and members at the yards across the country over the course of the next 6 weeks!
