Golden Week
A quiet week – no runners, but there was still plenty to be done! A phenomenal week of sport though – the football world cup continued, five days of Royal Ascot, the start of the second Test at The Oval between England and New Zealand, and the Premiership Rugby Playoff Final in Twickenham between Exeter and Northampton.
Last weekend was a very good one for Golden Horn, who sired a Listed winner in Doncaster, and a Group 2 second in Germany. How lucky are we to have Golden Horn standing as a predominantly jumps sire in the UK? What other jumps sire can you think of that has so many top-class performers on the flat? He is a stallion that we have always loved, and his stock has proved to be very popular at the recent National Hunt Store sales in both Britain and Ireland. A son of his topped the Goffs UK sale in Doncaster at £140,000 and as we pointed out last week, all ten offered at the Goffs Arkle Sale in Ireland last week, were sold, at an average price of €88,700 with a top price of €200,000. We are thrilled with our 3yr old homebred gelding, and I am delighted to say that he has been popular with everyone else as well. There is now just a single 10% share left unsold or not reserved in him. Thank you to everyone that has got involved in ‘George’- we wish you all the very best of luck with him– he is a lovely young horse, who represents outstanding value based on recent trade. He has completed his secondary school – passing all his exams with flying colours – he has been away several times and worked very nicely with some good horses, and he has schooled really well over hurdles. He is way more forward than most of the 3 yr old jumps bred horses in the country and is perfectly positioned to transition into full training with Fergal O’Brien in August. He is the perfect type to follow a path that we know well – a debut in a bumper in Oct/November, and then a tilt at the Listed Bumper in Cheltenham on New Years Day. What more do you want, a really good looking son of a fantastic stallion. Out of a mare that produces nothing but winners – a family that is only going to get better and better, and a young horse that has had all of the ground work done – proven that he can do what we will be asking of him – and is beautifully set up for his future career.
There was even more good news for Golden Horn at Royal Ascot on Thursday, when Trawlerman just lost out in an epic battle up the straight to be denied by Scandinavia in the Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup! Quite the week for an outstanding stallion – don’t miss his son ‘George’!!
https://www.nickbrownracing.co.uk/ForSale/8330/golden-horn-x-savingforvegas
Monday. A day in the office planning for the Open Day on July 26th and pricing a few options. It is a very busy time of year for caterers, so we have to grab a chance to correspond when we can. In fairness, now that I have numbers (there will now be in excess of 120 of us there) I have moved the goal posts slightly – safe to say the event has been upscaled! It looks like it will be a lot of fun!
Savingforvegas, her colt foal, ‘Nev’ and her yearling filly ‘Nancy’ have all settled in really well at Park Wood Stud in Gloucestershire after their recent switch from The Elms. Thanks to Hanne for sending some lovely pics through of the three of them.
Savingorvegas and Nev (left)
Yearling 'Nancy' (left)
We always love to see folks returning to the fold, and it was so good to have John confirm his purchase of a share in ‘George’ over the previous weekend – we wish him the best of luck with his new horse!
Tuesday – the start of Royal Ascot – we usually head there on the first day, but this year the top hat didn’t get an outing.
First thing – handicap ratings updates, published by the BHA at 8.00am. Having had two runners the previous Saturday, we would see what the handicapper made of their performances. Dino Bellgio had finished 5th in Chester. We had taken the decision to hold him up, having been drawn 10 of 11. In the end he ran a nice race from his draw, and the handicapper decided to drop him 2lbs to a new mark of 73. Ridin Solo had run an absolute cracker in Uttoxeter on Saturday evening, jumping for fun to finish second behind a 1-2 favourite, after 7 months off the track! We were absolutely delighted with his run, and he remains on his mark of 103 – which we are very happy about! Both horses came out of their runs fine, both a little stiff, but OK. Dino will run again in the next couple of weeks, and we will look for a race for Ridin Solo, with a possible step up in trip on the cards for him.
Membership of the Red Sash Racing Club reopens on July 1st – a share in Ridin Solo, just £500 for new members, which includes the purchase of your share and the all-inclusive training/keep costs for that share. Ridin Solo will continue to run through the summer and on last weekends outing looks sure to add to his win tally very soon. He is the most wonderfully consistent horse – who always gives his all, and is a really fun horse to be involved in for very little money!
Click the link!
https://www.redsashracing.co.uk/Shop/18/ridin-solo-
I spent the rest of the day working on a future project that I hope I will be able to reveal details of on this page next week. Something that Jason Maguire and I are keen to get going – the details will need to be discussed over the next week or two – but we are both keen to give it a go and there was a lot of work to be done over the course of the next few days!
I did get to watch the coverage of Royal Ascot in the afternoon, and what an afternoon it was! The result of the day for me was in the last! Alan King getting his 6th winner at the Royal meeting when Daiquiri Bay won the concluding handicap. A well executed plan, and I was thrilled for Alan and the whole team at Barbury Castle. A few of Daiquiri Bay’s owners are in the Alan King Racing Club, and it was fantastic to see them collect the prize after the race. A 5th Royal Ascot winner for Rossa Ryan – who is an outstanding jockey, and who gets on so well with Alan. I was absolutely buzzing after the race, and if I am honest – a little sad that I was not there to see it - but on reflection – I’m not sure what time we would have got home – and in what state! I believe the after party was lively!!
Photos - Debbie Burt.
It has been quit the week for Alan and the team – 3 winners from 5 runners across both codes, including Royal Ascot. One of them stung a little, read on to find out why!
Wednesday. Once again – in the office all day, glued to the computer and flitting from tab to tab to tab! I really do hope that all this homework pays off!
Great to see one of our ‘Old Boys’ make it back-to-back wins over fences in Worcester. Off The Jury, who we purchased as a foal and sold as a 3yr old, has won both of his chase starts to date, after being slightly frustrating over hurdles when owned by owner/rider, David Maxwell and trained by Alan King. He was sold when David retired from race riding, and although Alan did everything he could to retain him, he was eventually outbid, and Off The Jury headed to Mickey Bowen. He is a lovely horse that they have found the key to – fences and summer ground. He should pick up a nice prize over the summer months.
England got their World Cup campaign underway in Dallas on Tuesday night. As you will be aware – having my support is a curse on any team – West Ham, the Las Vegas Raiders, have both suffered from my support recently, but happily Northants Cricket is thriving with 6 wins out of 6 in the T20 Blast and second place in Div 2 of the County Championship, and thankfully, I had little effect on the England performance! England playing some lovely football to beat a decent side in Croatia by 4 goals to 2. I’m certainly no expert in football, but I did think England looked very good going forward, but less assured at the back – could they be a bit like Keegan’s Newcastle?
Thursday. Having put in countless hours in the office over the course of the week on other stuff – I had omitted to get the race reports for Dino Bellagio and Ridin Solo’s runs written and out to their owners. Time to rectify that in the morning.
There was an exciting entry a little later in the morning, when Alan King gave John Harrison his first entry of the summer, and his first in the colours of the Alan King Racing Club – he got an entry in a handicap in Salisbury over a mile. John Harrison has always been in training at Barbury Castle, and when the previous owners decided to move on from him, Alan was keen to retain him. He has always felt that JH has more ability than he has shown on the track – his homework has always been to a decent level, and Alan believes that gelding him could well bring out plenty of improvement in this son of Time Test. John Harrison has been drafted onto the team as cover for Ghost Dancing while she has a summers break, and he should give Club members an awful lot of fun going forward!
Another venture that we are thrilled to be working on, is the Bankhouse Thoroughbred Syndicate that we are managing for Donald McCain. Donald purchased a lovely, athletic son of the late Pethers Moon at last years Yorton Stud Sale, and having broken him in - he did a couple of months pre training before a short summers break. We launched the syndicate over the Grand National weekend, as the McCain family always get a lot of coverage around the time of the great race, but have only taken reservations for shares up until now. With over half of the 10 shares reserved, we are planning to have a yard visit in July/August to meet the horse, see him out at exercise and chat over plans with Donald. On Thursday I was contacted by Simon to see if he could purchase a share for his father as a Fathers Day gift – so the first share is now sold! We will still be having the yard visit, so if you would like to buy/reserve a share in this stunning young horse, who hails from a very impressive NH family – click the link and get in touch!
https://www.donaldmccain.co.uk/available-shares-/
Donald took himself away for a few days after racing last Saturday - and always enjoy a photo ot two of him in his bucket hat! Sian had tried to hide it - but he found it - and it got an airing!
In the afternoon I was glued to the TV to see if Trawlerman could defy an interrupted prep and lift the Ascot Gold Cup once again. What a race it was, a terrific battle up the straight between Trawlerman (Golden Horn) and Scandinavia – when it looked like Trawlerman was going to beat off his rival from the front, Ryan Moore galvanised a renewed effort from Scandinavia, only to see Trawlerman dig even deeper and look as if he had the better of the battle once again. Then the script flipped for one last time and Ryan Moore, as cool as ever, drove Scandinavia to the front when it mattered to win the race. It really summed up what racing is about – two great equine athletes fighting tooth and nail to the finish – what a horserace! Although beaten, it was a fantastic effort from Trawlerman who had been in intensive care over the Easter weekend, and who had sported some natty ‘ski goggles’ in the prelims - something he now has to wear in his homework as his condition left him hugely sensitive to sunlight! He is a brave warrior for sure!
Friday – not the call you want to receive first thing – Penselwood lame behind with a swollen hock. Luckily it looked to be easily explained – the tiniest of grazes on his lower leg had become inflamed overnight, with the swelling going up the leg into his hock making it pretty swollen and painful to move. The vet confirmed this later in the morning, and prescribed a course of antibiotics, anti inflammatory drugs and a couple of days on the walker. Not the best of timing, as Penselwood is due to return to Sir Mark Prescott’s, Heath House Stables next Wednesday to resume training after a spring break. The vet was confident that all would be well, and he could return to Newmarket as planned.
With his mind very much on Royal Ascot this week – it fell to his assistant, Robin to send through the work videos. John Harrison put in a lovely shift up the hill at Sharpridge and looks to be in great form. His work was very good and earned him another entry – this one in another mile handicap in Leicester next week.
Uhtred Ragnarson is back on song and worked well – he is not far off having an entry or two.
I’d Go Maniac also did a lovely piece of work and in proving his wellbeing, he too got an entry next week – his in a 1m2f apprentice handicap in Newmarket next Friday evening.
Alan has the whole team, flat and jumps in great order, which was demonstrated when Vivid Pink won easily in Market Rasen in the afternoon. While most were glued to Royal Ascot this winner did not go unnoticed by me! When And She Was was retired in early May I had asked Alan if he had a horse we could lease for the remainder of the summer to replace her. He kindly offered me Vivid Pink, who had won last time out, would appreciate summer ground, and who looked like she would give the syndicate a lot of fun. Sadly, when I offered her to the group, the uptake was less than I had hoped for, and as a result, I didn’t take Alan up on the offer of the lease. So, to see her win – and win easily by no less than 8 lengths was slightly galling, that could have been in our colours!
Saturday. Thankfully, Penselwood much improved, and he should be A1 and back ridden by Monday. It is frightening how such a small graze can cause a horse to be so lame!
Jason is busy doing those summer jobs that need doing – this week he has been topping up his deep sand gallop, and while he was on the tractor on Saturday afternoon, he was able to get a clip of Jimmy Gatz having a play with his mate. Jimmy G enjoying life on his holidays!
Not much more going on around the rest of the team, the only other one in work is Old Blue Eyes, who is another week closer to a return to the track. He has had a couple of niggly problems over the winter, both badly timed, which led to him missing the whole of the winter. His recent work has been very good, and he is getting very close to running. After such a long break, Donald is very keen to get him to the races in tip top shape, and as fit as he can get him. So instead of running him now, and OBE needing the run, he will instead have a racecourse gallop towards the end of next week and have entries after that – meaning that no stone will have been left unturned and he will go to the races in the best possible shape.
Apart from Penselwood, everything else at Ivy Lodge Farm is now on holiday – Cloud Dancer has come through the most important part of his rehab well and will now head back into training in August with as good a chance of making it back to the track as he could ever have had. It has been a long road – but it is the best way to do it – and hopefully it will be worth the wait with him! ‘George’ is also on a break now – he will have a few weeks in the field, and be back in pre-training in the middle of July, just in time for the Open Day at the end of the month where he will parade for his new owners. Nevada Samba is doing really well in the field with his mates – and you have seen how well Jimmy Gatz is. He is now well and truly over the muscle tear he suffered towards the end of the season – and I am really looking forward to seeing him over hurdles this autumn/winter. ‘ ‘Floyd’ our homebred 4yr old is also on a break – he is another one that those heading to the Open Day will get to see parade. He has grown a lot over the spring, and has needed time, but he is a super looking individual with outstanding paces, and he will tell us which way to go in the autumn. He is a project for Jason and I – and it will be a lot of fun to see how he develops.
Molly’s Lad is summering well with Timmy Murphy.
Sunday – Penselwood got to spend a few hours in the paddock – just to keep that hock moving. Safe to say – judging by this video that Jason sent me – he is not feeling it now!!
Jason also sent through a clip of Floyd enjoying the sunshine in a paddock close to home – he will head down the road to some grazing that Jason rents, and return to work in the autumn.
Right – I need to get back to work on our new project – next week will be a busy one – but if all goes to plan, we will have some very exciting news for you on this page next week!
Tune in to find out more – until then – have a great week and remember to keep yourselves well hydrated!
