Punchestown Pilgrimage
The annual ‘Pilgrimage’ to Punchestown this week. What a week it was! Amazing weather, great craic with the best people and some fantastic racing! It really is one of the best weeks of the year – if you have never been to the Punchestown Festival then do so! It is nothing like Aintree or Cheltenham, and in my mind – way better for it. Each of the first two big spring meetings has its own characteristics, but Punchestown is just different. The week builds towards the weekend – and my advice is to take in Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday – before the locals come out to play – you will never feel like you are in a huge crowd – (unless you are in McCormacks after racing) – and you will have the time of your life – I promise you!
Monday – on the back of last Sunday’s wonderful news from Louise Kemble at The Elms Stud, that Savingforvegas had scanned in foal once again, another share was snapped up in the breeding syndicate that are leasing her for the season. She is in foal to Kingston Hill, who’s progeny had such a wonderful spring on the track – White Noise winning at the Cheltenham Festival, and Kingston Queen and A Likeable Rogue looking both winning pattern races on the same Saturday. There is a single share available in Savingforvegas for the term of her pregnancy through to the weaning of her foal next year. Please click the link and have a look at the details – I promise you, having a winner is such a wonderful buzz, but you can magnify that feeling tenfold when you have been part of the journey from the very start, and bred that winner yourself!! Hit the link and get in touch!
https://www.nickbrownracing.co.uk/ForSale/8316/breeding-syndicate
With the office work ‘weighed in’ we set of for North Wales – it has become tradition to stay up that way on Monday night, making the trip to the ferry in Holyhead a little more relaxed on Tuesday morning. We used to stay in Chester, but for the past few years we have based ourselves in Conwy for the evening.
Shades of Reggie Perrin
After a little stop of to walk on the beach in Colwyn Bay and remember a very special lady who loved it there, we arrived at our digs for the night – The Hidden Chapel. The third time we have stayed here, really lovely people, and very handy for exploring the medieval walled town and castle. It is a shame that their restaurant isn’t open on a Monday night, but Alfredos Italian is just next door! After a short wander around the town – it was the traditional couple of pints in the Castle hotel – Guiness excellent – we must be getting close to Ireland! And this year – Hoffmeister on draft – my favourite lager! Dinner in Alfredos – fantastic starters, the main meal was unfortunately not quite as good! As a little aside – if you are ever in the town – you have to pop in the Deli opposite the Castle Hotel – a fantastic selection of meats, cheeses and prepared foods – I can recommend the Welsh Lamb Oggie – like a pasty, but Welsh!
First of the week!
Tuesday, the mid-morning ferry out of Holyhead, breezy in the port, but a calm crossing, although we were boarded by what I presume were members of the Irish Air Corps as we neared Dublin port, in a planned exercise. Two helicopters circled the ferry, one winching a small team onto the top deck before landing. More men disembarked before the helicopter took off again, rejoined the other one, and both headed towards land ahead of us. I thought this was the Irish sea – it was more like a scene from the Straights Of Hormuz!
A message arrived as we got into port and signal was regained – the vet had been in to scan Savingforvegas again – just to check that she had not conceived twins. Mares can carry twins, but it is not ideal – so you don’t want to see two small black blobs when they are scanned. Thankfully SFV carrying just the one – perfect! Once again, she has foaled and conceived again at the first time of asking – what a girl!
While we were sailing the high seas, Debbie was in at Barbury Castle to meet a couple of members of the Alan King Racing Club, and to see the three Club horses work along with And She Was. All three AKRC horses will run on through the summer – as will And She Was – they all prefer a sound surface – and this is their time of year. It was a glorious morning in Barbury Castle and the horses all looked fantastic!
Ghost Dancing
I'd Go Maniac
Uhtred Ragnarson
And She Was
We headed to our ‘home’ for the week – The Killashee Hotel just outside Naas. Just 10 minutes from the track it is the favourite haunt of the great and the good of British Racing when they descend on the area for the Festival. Always a great atmosphere in the bars and the lounges – and the food is good. The service at breakfast can be a bit hit and miss, which can make the head hurt a little more than usual! But all in all, it is a great place to base yourself if you are ever over there for the races.
Once we were checked in, it was straight down to the bar – for a few pints of porter and to watch the racing! Great fun – plenty of folks piling in after racing – but I managed to be quite sensible, and we were not too late to bed!
Wednesday – Alan King on to discuss a couple of entries. Both And She Was and Ghost Dancing will start the summer season in similar races – 2m handicaps, and there were 3 possible races for them next week. He would enter both of them in all 3, and we would decide where each of them went after we had seen the strength of the opposition, and the state of the ground. Both And She Was and Ghost Dancing would like a sound surface, and the sunny and drying weather would play into their hands. First entry for both – Ffos Las next Tuesday.
Another one to get an entry was Greyval – but this one was a little different – not a race – this entry was for the Goffs UK Spring Horses in Training Sale in Doncaster. Greyval has been retired, her racing days are over, but as a Listed Hurdle winner she will have a new career as a broodmare, and she will be offered at the Sale if not sold before. He syndicate have agreed, that she will be sold with a Non Racing Agreement, which will mean that she will never race again – they felt that she had given everything for them – and if there was anymore to give she would still be running for them – it was not fair on her to sell her to race on – the fairest thing to do for her was to retire her. When I ran into a few of Fergal’s team in Punchestown later in the week, they all agreed. Doing this will affect her value slightly, but it is the right thing to do!
Another one who will not be getting an entry in the short term is Nevada Samba – he has been stood down for the summer and will head off on his holidays next week. The ground, although very much in the favour of the rest of the team at Barbury Castle, definitely not suitable for him – he would never be risked on watered ground at this stage of his career – so the best place for him is the field, and a clear run at next season. Who knows where we might end up!
Debbie had been a busy girl – using her web of contacts in France she had manged to glean some information about Blarney – (the half brother to our own Penselwood) who has been tearing up trees in France in 2026. He has won 4 of his five starts and has a Group 1 entry in Parislongchamp later this month.
Blarney (Belardo) began his 2026 campaign by winning a handicap at Cagnes-sur-Mer with a rating of 32.5. He followed this up with two more victories at this level, stepping up 10 kg in the weights, before a final, easy win in a Class 2 race at Longchamp over 3,100 meters. Jérôme Reynier has two options with his marathon runner: “He can run in a Class 2 race with the weight penalty or test himself at a higher level in the Oleander-Rennen (Gr2) on Sunday, May 10th in Berlin. He will need to be supplemented in Germany, which is always a risk. But, in addition to the prize money and the horse's rating increase, the race offers an invitation to the Belmont Gold Cup (Gr2). We'll have a clearer picture after the withdrawals at the beginning of next week.”
It will depend on who’s entered in Germany, but if he doesn’t step up to Group level now, it will be after the conditions race
As you can see – his trainer has some lofty targets for Blarney – which is fantastic news, and a real boost to Penselwoods pedigree. I had a very interesting chat with a man in Ireland this week – and he seemed to be very interested in taking the remaining shares in Penselwood – he would love to have a horse in training with Sir Mark Prescott, so that is something I will be pursuing from tomorrow.
If you are interested – don’t miss out – click the link and get yourself a share!
https://www.nickbrownracing.co.uk/ForSale/8274/penselwood
On to the races – a glorious day – sunny and warm and some fantastic racing. We must have been looking good this year - twice 'Papped' on our way to the races - first for the Killashee socials - and then for the Leinster Leader when we got to the track!! I've never been 'Papped' before - well - only once - and that was by Debbie!
I was chatting to Harold Kirk before racing, Harold buys all of Willie Mullins’ horses, and he was telling me that only 1 horse in the last 15 years had done the Cheltenham, Punchestown Gold Cup double – neither of us could remember who ( later investigation confirmed it to be Sizing John), but we both agreed how big a task Gaelic Warrior had on his hands, To see him win in a canter was simply breathtaking – and it was very much a WOW performance. I’m glad I was there!
Dinner at our favourite restaurant in Naas, Vie de Chateaux– our usual table! The Dublin Bay prawns are spectacular, as was the Cote de Beuf! You really must head there if you are in Naas!
For some bizarre reason – a certain Irishman persuaded me that a visit to McCormacks after dinner was a good idea! I’m not sure the rest of my group thought so! But egged on by me, they grudgingly agreed to head up to the High Street. McCormacks was heaving – we managed to find a perch at one of the many bars, but after just a pint we all realised we couldn’t hear a bloody thing and that the best place for us was back at the Killashee! We hailed a taxi – a trip that we thought was going to start with a fist fight and reminded me of a scene from East is East – it will live long in the memory and make us laugh every time we think of it! A couple of cocktails back at the hotel – I had by now picked up the bridle and was in a bit of a party mode, the gang went to bed – I stayed up, but not for long!
Thursday – another beautiful morning. After breakfast I headed out for my usual walk around the hotel grounds. We were at breakfast with a well-known English trainer, who left about 10 minutes before we did – when I walked past him and his wife and their friends on my way through reception, and out for my ramble – they were tucking into a few pints! Good work – straight from breakfast to the bar – sums up Punchestown.
More entries for And She Was and Ghost Dancing – a mares’ handicap hurdle in Newton Abbot on Wednesday.
In the bar at 11.30am – a quick livener before we headed to the races. A real rogues gallery along the bar – two trainers, one former jockey, one joint trainer, one current jockey, and two valets – all getting stuck in early! They had been down to Willie Mullins’ earlier that morning, and all come away with a feeling of incredulity! It is absolute chaos at the yard – but it all works – they couldn’t see how – but it does – obviously!
The afternoon at the races was once again superb! What a way to go out – Bob Ollinger – take a bow – great scenes!!
The sale after racing was absolute madness! Unbelievable prices! Too rich for our blood I’m afraid!
Dinner back at the hotel – and we were not late to bed! It had been a long couple of days!
Friday – checkout – head to Dublin – then on to the port and the ferry home. Over breakfast, Alan pinged through the third and final entries for And She Was and Ghost Dancing – Market Rasen on Friday. They would not be entered until the following morning, but he was in Newmarket and knew I was travelling – so thought it best to get them in a day early.
With Alan in Newmarket, it was his assistant Robin Smith that videoed work. All the team working very nicely indeed.
I managed to get through Dublin Port without getting run over this year – (IYK,YK) so that was a bonus! The ferry trip home will live long in the memory for all the wrong reasons. We tried to find the most comfortable and quietest place on the boat – but we couldn’t escape the hordes of rampaging children running riot all over the place. Everywhere you went they were there! Charging about and shouting and screaming at the tops of their voices! Not what four, travel weary and slightly hungover voyagers wanted! After 3 ½ hours of continuous bedlam we were glad to get back into the quite calm of our cars – the 4 hour drive home was a breeze – with an unexpected and unscheduled meet up at the services on the M6 toll – which was relative calm compared to the ferry – next year we have promised ourselves the Club Class upgrade! Anything to get us away from the noise!! Home safely just before 10.00pm – what a fantastic week – looking forward to 2027 already!!
Saturday – In the office early – sharing the sales details of Greyval far and wide, France, Ireland and the UK. Alan King called to say that he would not be declaring I’d Go Maniac in Kempton on Monday afternoon. He would rather wait a week with him, and head to Windsor the following week. He was still up in Newmarket, so asked me to have a look through the entries for And She Was and Ghost Dancing and put a plan together for the pair for next week – a task for later.
Good to catch up with Donald McCain who had been out in Spain for a few days. One of his holiday snaps was the talk of Punchestown on Thursday! Donald reported that all three horses in training at Bankhouse were in great order.
Dino Bellagio had been confirmed in the Chester Cup and Chester Plate next Friday – there is a record entry – now we just have to see if he sneaks in the bottom of the weights of the Plate. It will be tight!
Ridin Solo is doing 4 and 4 on the deep sand gallop and then one up the hill. He is in great form, moving well, and will start to gallop from the 12th May – he will soon be back on track!
Old Blue Eyes is being trained on the hill gallop – and is now doing three up the hill on work mornings. The plan remains for him to run over hurdles before a summers break. It has been a frustrating season with him – hopefully he can get a run before a break and then a productive season from the autumn. He is a nice horse with plenty of ability – he just needs to get to the track – it’s always the talented ones that give themselves niggles – usually because they are the ones that put it all in every day!
Jason Maguire called with an update – Floyd our 4yr old homebred has had an easy week on the water treadmill.
George our 3yr old by Golden Horn is really going nicely – he will be ready for an away day the week after next. He is a horse that Jason likes a lot – and who will be syndicated in the coming weeks – he will be aimed at the Listed Bumper in Cheltenham on New Years Day!
Cloud Dancer is doing plenty of cantering – and as long as the vets are happy with him when he is scanned next week – he will head away with George on the away day. He will do a couple of pieces of faster work before a summers break and then head back into training in the autumn. He will head over fences when he returns to racing – Brian Hughes felt that he had a nice future over the bigger obstacles when he rode him on what was his final start in 2025.
Penselwood is heading into to last 2 weeks of his R&R at Ivy Lodge Farm, He will be back in work in mid-May in preparation for a return to Sir Mark Prescott’s Heath House in June. I can’t wait!
Over at Timmy Murphy’s – Molly’s Lad is enjoying his holidays too!
Sunday – Alan King, who’s team continue in fantastic form called to discuss the three races for And She Was and Ghost Dancing. I felt that And She Was would be better suited to the big galloping nature of Ffos Las – so she has been declared there. Ghost Dancing will head to Newton Abbot on Wednesday – so it looks like a couple of days in the West Country for me!
Ffos Las, Tuesday. Newton Abbot Wednesday and then hopefully Chester on Friday – should be a fun week – tune in next Sunday for all the latest!
