Saturday 30th August 2025 - 2 more winners after the 3-week summer break from NH racing

With no racing through the first three week of August, it was a lovely opportunity to get away with the children, and we had a lovely week in Greece with Lucy’s side of the family and their numerous cousins.  There was a lot of water skiing and tennis to go along with the long lunches and fun dinners. 

However, it was lovely to get back racing and even better to get back with a couple of winners, as Knights Affair deservedly defied a penalty when winning by a nose at Stratford last week.  He won on his hurdling debut and had been second on his two subsequent starts, so it was lovely to see him winning again for the Value Racing Club team, and he will now head to the valuable final at Worcester at the end of September. 

Hope Rising has been an absolute revelation this summer over hurdles.  Having won two novice events, it was lovely to see her improve again to win on her handicap debut in a competitive race at Newton Abbot.  She looks to really appreciate a fast run 2m race and she might be one to aim at the first Cheltenham meeting at the end of October.

I was delighted to see Opale De Maine improve on her racecourse debut to be 2^nd in the bumper at Hexham this week.  She is certainly capable of winning on her next start.

In other news, Racing Welfare has announced that two fixtures of ‘Racing Come Dancing’ will take place at York and Newbury Racecourses in November, and we have been selected to appear in the Newbury event.   This glittering new charity event will bring the glamour of ‘Strictly’ to the heart of the horseracing community, and we will be required to perform a solo and group ballroom routine in front of a celebrity judging panel and live audience, following eight weeks of professional training!!!!

To start the practice, Lucy and I took the children to Wembley to see Coldplay perform earlier this week.  We danced the night away, much to the children’s initial embarrassment but they soon joined in on what was a really fantastic evening.  To cap the evening off for the children, most of the Arsenal team were in the next door box!