Blog Archives

With Covid-19 changing the landscape so rapidly at the end of the 2019/20 season it has certainly been a year like no other.  Racing has been so fortunate to be able to continue albeit without crowds, and for a lot of the time without owners, but it has forced me to take a step into the world of tech and although I am no Steven Speilberg, my ability to produce a race day video has definitely improved!  As the season has progressed, I know that the lack of owners being able to go to the track and then the lack of integration has been felt more and more keenly.  I am hopeful that things will now start to change, and I cannot thank our owners enough for the support and understanding they have shown through an extremely difficult year for the world in general.

From our own perspective, it has been a very rewarding season in many ways.   Firstly, and most importantly the team here have all done a phenomenal job at keeping the show on the road and been absolutely dedicated to the horses, and thankfully have remained healthy.  Furthermore, our lovely horses have continued to grow in strength and quality.

A big high point in the year was seeing Paisley Park winning the Porsche Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot in December in such gutsy style and running right back to his best.  We were proud of his performance finishing third in the stayer’s hurdle at The Cheltenham Festival, the ground he made up to perform as well as he did was incredible to see, it was just a shame that the weather had prevented us from getting a prep run in to him.  Aintree seemed to come too soon for him and I think that at the age he is now he probably does need a bit more cut in the ground, so it just didn’t happen for him.  However, I am very happy to report he is safe and sound and now going out in the field for his summer holidays.

Manofthemountain was another success story for the yard and having won on his first start of the season he also won his last when impressively seeing off the opposition at Cheltenham earlier this month for Grade 2 success. He is a pleasure to train, is a wonderful jumper and a natural born enthusiast and we are very much looking forward to seeing him running next season.

Our other graded success this year came in the form of Boreham Bill who had been on the go for a good while having started the campaign over fences – although sometimes through them, and on occasions looking like he might be burrowing under them! However, Ben Jones and he had a great relationship which they kept intact. As the ground became softer we felt it was best not to continue over fences and so he had a short break and came back to win the Lanzarote Hurdle at Kempton.  It is a race I have tried to win for many years and on two occasions have had what looked like the potential winner falling at the last.  Therefore, I was absolutely delighted to see Bill winging the last and skipping clear from the rest of the field at the extraordinary odds of 66/1.  It was an absolute thrill for us and an even greater thrill for this owners Mike and Sue Foran.  It was a disappointing prize money haul based on the prestige of the race, but unfortunately that was a consistent theme throughout the year.

There were some good performances from staying chasers, with the likes of Irish Prophecy and Eclair Surf each winning a couple of nice races.  Having travelled well for a long way in the Bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown in April, Irish Prophecy unfortunately burst a blood vessel coming to the pond fence and that was the end of the race for him.  However, with a good period of rest out in the field for the summer he should return refreshed as he is a horse that has really improved and gained consistency this season.

Shang Tang won two valuable novice hurdles, but his Cheltenham Festival aspirations were not helped by two false starts and he now will go novice chasing next season.  Flemcara has been an absolute star for us over the years and he also won a couple for us this season.  He is not a lover of jumping fences and he will remain over hurdles but having shown he can handle slightly better ground nowadays it should open a few more doors for him.

Killer Clown is another exciting horse who was extremely impressive winning on Boxing Day at Kempton and then paid the price of a huge hike in the weights when just beaten in the Grade 2 Greatwood Gold Cup at Newbury.  He didn’t get the clearest of passages at Sandown on the last day of the season when finishing third, but he is definitely a horse to be looking forward to for next season.

The same can be said for a whole host of horses that performed well – as ever far too many seconds and thirds but it has been a consistent season for us with some lovely winners and a huge amount to look forward to.

It is always so hard for everyone involved to come to terms with the loss of a horse.  Hoi Polloi really was a potential star, and it was desperately sad when we lost him at Newbury earlier this year. That could also be said for Namib Dancer who won so impressively at the start of the season, to then lose him in his next race seemed very unfair as was Tierra Verde, a very genuine mare who always did her best.  All were lovely horses and they are very sorely missed by everyone who looked after and loved them.

On a more positive note, the crop of youngsters we purchased at last year’s store sales have all been coming along beautifully.  With the sales taking place much later last year due to the pandemic it meant that these horses finished up having their breaks a little later than usual and us finishing the season unable to get them to the track.  We did get a few away for racecourse gallops and they all look to be a really encouraging bunch for the future.  Considering covid and the concerns we had when racing stopped, we are so grateful to our owners who have invested in us and it is extremely exciting to see the number of horses in training remaining as strong as they are and the quality getting better and better.

Related to this, Barry and I felt we had reached a point where we needed a stable jockey to give us a bit more consistency through the year.   Many of you will have noticed as the season had progressed that Tom Bellamy had been riding more for us, and with his strike rate on our horses being extremely impressive, we had a conversation with Tom about whether he would become a more permanent member of the team and we are delighted to say that he has embraced the opportunity and going forward from now I am extremely happy to announce Tom Bellamy is our stable jockey.  Adam Wedge, Ben Jones and Aidan Coleman will continue to ride for us when opportunities arise so we should be very well served by top class riders for the forthcoming season.

As ever we are hugely indebted to our fantastic team working here, especially Roddy, our head man, who manages the yard in such in an exemplary fashion, and to Katrina who continues to run our lives for us in the office – someone has to!

We are so excited for the future and for more success to come our way next season and hopefully in a world that has taken a few steps back towards normality!

There are so many occasions when I think how nice it would be to be a racehorse and looking at them all out in the field at the moment in the glorious weather, with their full bellies, lying flat out without a care in the world, now is definitely one of those times.  Social distancing is absolutely not a concept that they understand, be it from each other or me, when I’m attempting to give them a scoop of nuts in the evening and as I watch them lolloping round the field there is definitely more than one session of exercise per day going on around here!  What this dreadful virus has made me appreciate even more is just how lucky we are.  We still have structure in our lives and people, partly because of necessity to look after the horses and partly because this is our time of year for cleaning and repairs.  We live in the most beautiful surroundings where we have always taken walking and exercise for granted and where the air is always fresh and the wildlife always interesting.  There is never a time when something doesn’t need doing so boredom is never an option and when frustrations are rising I have always found that the horses are exceptional listeners – they never answer back, agree with everything I say and when they start yawning I find it much easier not to take offence!  They have and always will be so much more than just the enablers for us to run a business and that has never been truer than now.

It is usually at this time of year that we reflect on how the previous jumps season has been and on the horses that we are most looking forward to for the coming winter, so although the season was understandably cut short there is still plenty to look back on and, I believe, much to be excited about in the future.  The highlight of last year was without doubt the Ladbrokes winter festival at Newbury where Paisley Park winning the feature hurdle and De Rasher Counter winning the Ladbroke trophy made for a weekend of celebrations surpassing all others – it is what dreams are made of and when our team presented Barry and I with a signed picture of the horses in Ladbrokes winning rugs surrounded by all those that helped it happen, entitled ‘If Carlsburg did racing…’ it bought home just how much these big days mean to everyone.  Hang In There winning a grade 2 novice at Cheltenham and Paisley winning again on trials day gave us another four graded wins this season which continues to show that the quality of horses in the yard keep rising.  Highly Prized, The Sweeney, Misty Bloom, Belle Empress and Manofthemountain all made significant contributions to the prize money haul and gave us some very special days out but perhaps the most special was Fortunate George winning at Warwick.  It was our conditional, Henry Platt’s first winner and it had certainly been a long time between drinks for George and his owners (metaphorically speaking anyway!), considering he was coming in to the winners enclosure victorious, I had never seen so many people crying – that’s what racing does.

Newbury blessed us with our best days racing last season but it was also the place of our worst.  Fontsanta had been nurtured by Barry and given all the time he needed to mature by his owner Tim Syder and we really felt that we had a star in the making.  Watching him soar over his fences out in front he looked at last like the finished article – he was just too brave at the third last and paid the ultimate price – a great loss for us all.

Youth is the future and we certainly look to have a very talented bunch.  Red Rookie, unbeaten in two bumpers, was extremely impressive and has the size and scope to be anything – he is quite a handful in the mornings so certainly not one I’d be putting my name down to ride but as long as he continues to channel his exuberance in the right direction at the races I think we’ll all forgive him!  Hoi Polloi is another that could be a potential star.  He showed pace to win from an unpromising position in his bumper and has done nothing but improve since his run.  He is doing really well out in the field and if anyone deserves to have a top class horse it’s Nick Mustoe.  Runswick Bay and Sam Barton have also shown themselves to be horses to look forward to from the bumper ranks as well as some exciting novice hurdlers and plenty that have yet to make it the track, the end of the summer seem a long way away!  The support we have had from owners this year has been tremendous and is very much appreciated.

What was undoubtedly very disappointing was Paisley Park and Cheltenham.  Everything had gone so well in the lead up to the Paddy Power Stayers hurdle and we were all so excited but horses and racing are great levellers and it just wasn’t to be.  He seemed a little quiet even in the preliminaries which was unlike him, usually he jig jogs continually and Laura can only just keep a lid on him, but he looked magnificent and we just felt that maybe at last he was starting to grow up a bit.  Hindsight is a wonderful thing and had we known then what we learnt after we would have known that something was probably feeling a bit odd to him even then.  Post race, back in the stables, he was showing an irregular heartbeat which more than explained his lacklustre performance.  Fortunately, although it remained out of rhythm until late on Thursday evening, it rectified itself without any external help by Friday morning which was a very positive outcome under the circumstances.  He went to Newmarket for tests and apart from finding that he has an exceptionally large heart (no surprises there) they were very happy with him and he came back with a heart monitor where the vets in Newmarket could remotely check on what his heart was doing during exercise.  He got back up to do doing a good piece of fast work with no heart abnormalities showing and a very quick recovery time so at that point he was given a clean bill of health and a field of grass for his holidays (pictured)!  He and his best friend, The Domino Effect, are turned out together and both are expanding rapidly (I know the feeling!).

Having had such a great preparation with Paisley Park ahead of the Paddy Power Stayers Hurdle, it was obviously massively disappointing that the day didn’t pan out in the way we had hoped.    But, without doubt the most important thing is that Paisley came back in one piece and very much lives to fight another day.

Watching the race we never really felt he travelled and jumped in his usual fashion and looked very tired crossing the line, which would not be trademark Paisley.  On examination back in the stables post-race he was found to have an irregular heartbeat.  This was still the case late last night, but thankfully it had rectified by this morning, with an ECG showing it was all back to normal.  He will head to Newmarket on Sunday to have further tests to make sure that all is well.

He is such a star and has done so much for us and we will make sure that no expense is spared in confirming all is well to resume training, and we hope it will not be too long before we see those big ears pricked and back in the winner’s enclosure!