Monday 24th February 2020 - rain, rain, and more rain with not much racing as a result, but lots of work behind the scenes.

With very little racing on due to all this rain (we’ve had just one runner in two weeks which was just touched off into 2^nd, and just seven runners in the whole of February) it’s always a slightly frustrating time of year, but patience is key in these sorts of periods and I am pleased that the team remain in good form as we look forward to the spring! 

Legends Ryde had some excellent bumper form, not only winning well but also picking up some black type when 2^nd in a listed race at Cheltenham in November.  However, she had disappointed on her hurdling debut when 4^th at Hexham, and it transpired she needed a wind operation.  Having had a soft palate op, she ran really encouragingly at Huntingdon last week to be 2^nd where she wasn’t beaten far and she ran through the line.  Bar winning, I couldn’t have been happier with her.  She travelled nicely, jumped well, looked to just think about it coming into the straight, but then realised she could breathe and ran on to hit the front coming to the last but she pricked her ears and looked green there…….lost a bit of momentum but rallied to be staying on close to the line. 

With most meetings abandoned last week, we took a lorry load of babies for a racecourse gallop at Lingfield instead – which was very educational, and exciting for the future.  Minella Beat acted as a lead horse, and then we took No Anxiety (Simon Munir, Isaac Souede & Sir Chips Keswick); Datsalrightgino (the GD Partnership); Diddly Do (Ed Spurrier); Stratton Oakmont (Lodge Down Stables Syndicate) and Representing Bob (Beccle Sperling Allen & Hague).  The headcam was on Gavin who rode Datsalightgino and can be seen on the following link:

 https://youtu.be/k0PKMlrqpR4

We’re having a great season, but it’s always lovely to dream about where the next batch of babies may take us……

We have some classy horses in the team and continue to recruit better and better horses and our recent purchase is really exciting.  Tallow For Coal is a 4 year old gelding who is a brother to two black type winners and is out of a sister to the useful staying chaser Occold and a half-sister to the dam of the Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, Denman.   He won his maiden Irish point-to-point at Knockanard in County Cork on 16th February, where he achieved a very impressive Irish Point To Point rating of 91++  in a two-and-a-half mile event.  To put that into context Shishkin (favourite for the Supreme at the Festival) got an Irish rating of 92.   He has the pedigree, physique, and performance to be top class and is a hugely exciting horse to go to war with. 

We are partnering him out in 25% shares, so don’t miss out on this exciting opportunity to invest in the next star……!