Off To The Sales!

We enjoyed another winner at Worcester on Wednesday evening when Horsford landed the novices' chase under champion jockey A P McCoy. Even better, Raslan followed him home to complete a 1-2 for the yard. Although it was only a four runner race, it was not without its share of drama as favourite King's Legacy departed at the sixth fence along with outsider Grand Fella, leaving our pair to finish alone.

On Thursday I attended a media training day at Taunton races which was hosted by Channel 4 Racing presenter Leslie Graham. Without wishing to sound big headed, I always thought that I was alright with the media, but I soon realised that I had plenty to learn! It was an interesting and informative day and I would like to thank the organisers for their help - hopefully I will get a chance to put some of my techniques into action sooner rather than later!

I have been trawling through the catalogues and will be attending the sales at Doncaster looking for potential stars of the future over the next couple of days. We have a proven track record of purchasing value for money horses that are able to compete at a high level, and anyone wishing to make a purchase can get in touch with me via e-mail or by contacting my office on 01884 840715.

With all of the competition that is about these days my job is difficult enough without race conditions altering due to the frankly pathetic levels of funding. To illustrate my point, I was looking through the program book the other day and found what appeared to be a perfect race for my 116 rated hurdler American Art...it was a class 3 handicap hurdle (0-120), but owing to the poor money on offer the race was subsequently downgraded to a 0-115 race, rendering American Art ineligible. It is not an original sentiment, but the funding of our sport needs to be addressed, and quickly!

Finally, you will find a brand new and revised season review for the 2010/11 campaign just ended by clicking here, looking back at all the highlights from the past twelve months – I enjoyed reminiscing, I hope you do too!