Good To Be Back...

I enjoyed a very nice week away in Tuscany with Leanne, the children, my parents and some close friends.  To say the location was ‘rural’ would be something of an understatement as our villa was located some five miles up a single dirt track and we certainly had a mixed bag with the weather – by day it was warm and sunny, by night we had some spectacular thunder and lightning storms.

The purpose of the trip was to celebrate my mother’s forthcoming birthday – I didn’t realise that I was descended from royalty… I mention this because, much as with the Queen we have already had one or two birthday celebrations and I am sure there are a few more to come yet!

Anyway much as the break was needed, I am not one to remain idle for long and was pleased to return to Pond House on Saturday afternoon.   It was a little bizarre arriving back in Nicholashayne to an afternoon of pig and donkey racing in the village at the neighbouring farm.  One or two of the staff from the yard somehow managed to get the leg-up in some of the races and canny old Gerry Supple had obviously read the form book as he bagged by far the fastest steed for his race.  Gerry will tell you that class is permanent and he still has ‘the touch’, but I am reliably informed that his mount was a handicap snip!  Conor O’Farrell and Sam Twiston-Davies were among notable names present.

Onto the serious stuff and in my absence we had a few runners and by and large they performed creditably without quite getting their heads in front.  Indeed, we had three horses finish second and another three finish third.

Bathwick Man finished a close second at Bangor on Monday and filled the same position at Newton Abbot on Sunday, both times under conditional jockey Kieron Edgar.  He has dropped a few pounds in the weights over the last twelve months and that has proven to be just the ticket for a renaissance in form.  He is an honest old horse but could do without being put back up the weights by the assessor as his currently mark of 105 is clearly about right.

We had a few runners over the two days of Newton Abbot’s valuable late summer fixture and I thought that Shoegazer ran a good race in the Mildmay Chase – a race that he had won twelve months earlier from a 10lbs lower mark.  He is versatile and handles any ground and is another who seldom runs a bad race – he will continue to contest all of the decent handicap chases at around three miles and will be given an entry in the Kerry National at Listowel that closes on Wednesday.

Meanwhile we have also had a runner or two on the level and Purple ‘N Gold is another that continues to run very well.  Indeed, to my mind (and certainly that of jockey Ryan Moore) he was unlucky not to have won at Sandown on Saturday as he finished a close third in the 1m2f handicap having been tightened up in the straight.  He will be kept going on the flat and over hurdles and has proven to be a shrewd buy from a Kempton claimer by owner Keith Webb.

The week ahead looks a little quiet on the jumping front.  Our only entry at Southwell on Wednesday will be Diamond’s Return who ran well when upped in trip at Ffos Las last time.  He also has an entry at Fontwell on Sunday, along with The Tracey Shuffle and Bathwick Man.  You can keep up to date with all the runners from the yard by visiting Chester’s Daily Chat.

Finally, we had an esteemed visitor at the yard this afternoon (Monday) when leading jockey Jason Maguire paid us a visit.  Jason was down to see local legend Gerry Supple but called in to say hello and took our equicisor for a spin.  Jason has had a good start to the season with 41 winners currently on the board and is currently second only behind A P McCoy in the jockeys’ standings.  He was taking advantage of a blank day in the programme, but will have to head back north and ride out a few for Donald McCain tomorrow morning after seeing what he gets up to on his day off!