Racing Stable Daily Life Stories In August

Racing Stable Daily Life Stories In August: The Open Day Was Absolutely Brilliant!

The Raffle Prizes

I really have to start with yesterday's Owners Open Day – what an incredible turnout of lovely people who support our yard! The horses (nearly!) all behaved themselves, and the staff had worked all day grooming and getting everyone ready to show off. What an excellent team of horses we have to go to war with this autumn!

The raffle table was absolutely laden with gifts, all donated by you wonderful people – we raised £900 on that alone! Then Andrea had her Tropic Products stand and is offering 15% on all orders to our charities, which is incredibly generous.

But the crème de la crème was the auction! This year we had professional auctioneer Jack Walton, who was absolutely amazing and squeezed the last pounds out of people in the best possible way! Les Waugh had worked so hard to get all the breeches framed and signed.

There was also a unique whip and silver shoe horn that made £300 – these were given as prizes to the late Pat McCarron on winning two of his 244 races (including the 1964 Champion Hurdle – he was also second twice in the Grand National!). The gifts were given by his widow to Les and must be absolute collectors' items.

Our 'yard artist' Jay Kirkman was there, and he donated one of his prints which made £250! The Waughs, Viv Tut, David Thompson, David McCreath, Semore Kurdi, Eloise Quayle, Alan Hendren, and our very own Rose gave auction items which raised an amazing £2,305!

So that's over £3,000 to be divided between our three charities: Zoe's Place, Cancer Research, and the Injured Jockeys Fund. People are still sending donations, so I'll update accordingly! Thanks to all the bidders – you're stars!

He is a keeper!

I also announced the winning syndicate/partnership by prize money: Castle View Racing came first, followed by Northern Racing Club in second, and Nelson Racing Club in third. The winning owner was Samantha Toomes, followed closely by Shaun Humphries and Daryl Clarke!

I was proud that so many owners came along, and I hope the yard will progress even further next season. We couldn't do any of this without you!

Back to the rest of the week... We had the Borders Pony Club come for the day to use the gallop and have a look around – only two fell off, which is pretty good going! The style a couple of the younger boys had on the mechanical horse was something to behold. Eyes on them for the future!

All horses are now back in full work but still living out in the fields – best of both worlds, really. They get so much more fitness walking around the fields, and as long as the weather holds, with good feed and exercise, they should get fitter much faster!

Apache Angel looked like a riding horse for most of his race, then changed gear at the end, so he gets another final run!

This week:

9th August – Rogers Dream, first time in a handicap at Thirsk (ground dependent)
17th August – Jimlis Island at Perth for the GRC
7th September – All welcome to our National Racehorse Week Open Day
14th December – Christmas Dinner at the Coach House Restaurant

Nathan Schooling Jimlis Island

Perth Finally Smiles on Us!

What a brilliant day we had at Perth – our luck there definitely needed to change! I bought Jimlis Island for a bargain price six weeks ago, and as I mentioned, he was very portly. The team have worked incredibly hard to get him fit, and he wins his first race for us and the Girsonfield Racing Club – he's the first horse the group have actually bought themselves!

Nathan rode him with his usual style and positive attitude. This absolutely consolidates Nathan moving from being the 'yard spare' (how I heard him describe himself last year) to my jockey of choice for the yard. He now comes in twice a week and is getting to know all the horses better, which I think pays huge dividends – especially when he says he hasn't sat on a bad one yet!

Nathan Wins On Jimlis Island

Wee Alki ran in his first bumper and had a big learning curve of a day. I'm not sure which was more stressful for him – the day at the races or listening to Josh and me singing 'Summer of 69' on the way home from Perth!

However, he was 'very professional' and did nothing wrong. He's bred for three miles and bumpers are two, so he ran on at the end as he was supposed to. He's a fun horse for the future, starting at Kelso on 18th September in a maiden hurdle, all being well.

I was really impressed with up-and-coming jockey Ben Smith – very good communication, professional, and great value for his 7lb claim.

The rest of the week has been building fitness with the rest of the string. Some will be ready late September, others early October. We've got a couple of very promising bumper horses in Li Shang and Ivans Legacy.

The jumps season ahead will have its ups and downs as ever, but I'm absolutely delighted with the quality of horses on the yard this year.

The flat horses are out in the next few weeks:

Dates for the diary:

21st August – Rogers Dream and Apache Angel (may not get in their Carlisle races)
24th August – Infinite Honour goes to Redcar
28th August – Rogers Dream at Catterick
7th September – National Racehorse Week Open Day, 10:30-3:00 – please spread the word, all welcome!

Fitness, Retirements, and Exciting Plans Ahead!

Another week of fitness training without much racing action. Jimlis Island came out of his race brilliantly, but I decided against Cartmel as it was going to be heavy ground (unlike Redcar with good to firm!).

So he'll go to Perth on the 9th for the Girsonfield Racing Club, over hurdles this time as there are no chases available. It'll be good to see how he is over hurdles. Quite a few horses on the yard will mix and match at the beginning of the season until we assess where their strengths lie.

I took Johnny Dogs, who was retired due to back issues, to the E and O laboratories, where he'll be a blood donor to make blood products throughout the world (for human use). He's turned out in massive fields in a herd, which is a lovely life for him.

I'd already had offers for him, but sadly we'd sold one horse as a companion for £500, and the very next week she was offered for sale at £2,000 – unscrupulous people! So the blood donor route is an excellent one for unsound horses. The last horse we took there was put down just three weeks ago, aged 30, so they have wonderful long lives.

Johnny Dogs with new friends at E and O Labs

Staff news – as some of you know, we've had a couple of accidents with two of the younger staff members off injured. The Sunday staff stepped into the breach brilliantly, and the girls will be back soon.

We've also employed Bekah Duffy – yes, that's Josh's sister! We've now employed all of the family at some stage. Lewis is now a stallion handler in Australia, and Josh is, as you know, our head lad. Not bad – three out of three in equine jobs from one house in Otterburn, and no background apart from coming here when they were 12! Or was it 16? I can't remember!

Apache Angel has been retired and will be sold as a riding horse. As his jockey bluntly said, "There is not one inch of 'I want to be a racehorse' in him!" Fair enough – not every horse is cut out for racing.

Rogers Dream did much better, coming in fourth under a very positive ride from Raul Da Silva. I hope all the Otterburn Racing Club enjoyed their time with her. She's now moving, just until the end of the season, to the Naughty but Nice Syndicate.

Meanwhile, I believe Mike, Chris, and Nick are hatching a new plot for the Otterburn Racing Club! Watch this space...

Jumps Horses After Work

Whispering Dancer has a new partnership just setting up with a maximum of eight members. We have two shares left: 10% = £1,000 plus £200 per month. He's 17.3 hands and half-brother to Different Gravey, a 160-rated horse who won £70,000 for Nicky Henderson!

The yard is now gearing up for our second Open Day on 7th September for National Racehorse Week. It'll be a day with demos from our farrier, vets, chiropractor, and physio. The staff will be riding on the gallops, so it's much different from our owners' day.

By the way, we've sent £1,000 to the children's hospice and £1,000 to Injured Jockeys, and we have £1,400 still growing with donations from Nathan Moscrop (our yard jumps jockey), Elizabeth Goodfellow, the Gledsons, and Andrea's donation from Tropic all coming in. What a brilliant result – thanks again to all!

Owners don't need to book in and are very welcome to come, bring friends, and see ALL the parts of the team that work together (10:30-3:00) to make the yard successful.