30th January 2017 - horses running well but a rough week!

Wow – what a week…..the horses have all run well but lady luck hasn’t shone down on us as bumper winner Orchard Park broke his shoulder when running a big race on Saturday whilst another bumper winner, Wildehearted Women, fell with the race at her mercy and cracked a bone behind her knee! A tough week for the yard and connections, but as we all know sometimes in this game the highest highs follow the lowest lows, and thankfully the highs outweigh the lows, so onwards and upwards!

Orchard Park will be sadly missed by all at Folly House.

Wildehearted Women retires early due to injury.

Having won at the start of the month, I thought Future Gilded looked to have every chance of following up at Wetherby earlier this week, and so booking his place at the Festival in March. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the best of rides as we missed the kick for home, and then stayed on to be a closing 2nd at the line. Although that means he won’t be going to the Festival this season, I’d hope he can be one for the Challenger Series at Haydock in March, and perhaps he’s one to consider for the Beecher Chase in the autumn.

I was delighted that Grand Gold ran so well on debut for us at Fontwell earlier this month when finishing 2nd under a lovely ride from Page Fuller. We ran him back quickly over fences, which didn’t work, but he made a noise there and has had a wind operation as a result.

Grand Gold hits the crossbar on his first start under rules for just under 3 years.

The admirably consistent Midnight Silver was 3rd in a good race over hurdles at Wetherby, and would surely have been 2nd at worst on her chasing debut but for unseating two out. We’ll look to find her another suitable winning opportunity.

Kassis out ran her odds by a country mile when 4th in the mares listed contest at Leicester this month. A four-time winner, Kassis is already worthy of breeding from, however we were looking to add some black type to her name and missed out by the narrowest of margins.

Meanwhile Naranja ran well to be 3rd on her hurdling debut in ground she found testing enough at Lingfield. We’ll try and find her an easier assignment now stepped up in trip.

We had our first runner in the first ever UK “point to point bumper” at Barbury Castle a few weekends ago and Oliver’s Island ran very well on his first ever run to be second, just out battled to the line. The winner of the race had already won a 4 year old maiden point to point in Ireland so it will be interesting to see how much he goes for when they pop him through the sales ring. Our lad isn’t very big but he’s all heart and ran a blinder to do what he did in such a competitive race.