- Monday, 06 April 2020 11:15
- Written by David Pipe
Know the Score & Friends at Grass
The Virtual Grand National on Saturday proved to be a great success for our sport and industry as a whole with some welcome light relief to our current situation, some great media coverage, good humour and most importantly a terrific amount of money was raised for the NHS charities. I have to admit I did have a slight worry when John White, owner of Ramses De Teillee messaged me to say he was moving his horse to a different trainer after Tom Scu gave his horse such a bad ride! Instructions to Tom were to be handy and get a mention on the TV; he was nearer last than first most of the way and then fell! Thankfully horse and jockey have returned safe and sound and look forward to contesting the race for real in 2021!
The race had a good viewing audience, 4.8 million which is more than your average meeting covered on ITV racing. Last year’s Derby attracted a viewing audience of 1.75 million while 1.44 million people watched Al Boum Photo win the Cheltenham Gold Cup this year. Over £2.6 million was raised from bets placed on the race for the NHS charities which was the best result of all.
NO JUMPING UNTIL JULY
It was announced last Thursday (2nd April) that there would be no jumps racing until 1st July at the earliest. While disappointing it was a welcome decision to give us all some clarity and form some plans for our horses and make the best decisions for our owners. We were keeping some horses ‘ticking over’ in case there was likely to be any jumping in May but with this news it means that these horses can now have a short holiday and then return to training in May and still be ready to run when jumps racing returns.
We now only have a few horses left in training – horses that can potentially run on the flat in May and then go jumping later in the summer. These include horses such as Malangen, Teaser, Miss M, I’lleyougonow and Yaa Salam to name a few. A large proportion of my staff have been furloughed in the hope that they can return when the horses return. It is tough times for everyone but I hope by looking after everyone in the short term we will be able to have a full team back together and raring to go when the time comes. A lot of the horses are out to grass or will be going out shortly and the team left behind are doing usual summer jobs which include tidying, steam cleaning, dis-infecting and painting.
The plan from those that tasked with getting racing back going when possible, is that there can be a much fuller programme of racing than normal for the time of year. There would be more fixtures with priority given to those tracks who have lost out most during the current situation. In recent times there has been two little breaks in action in August and September but this would be cancelled this year.
FLAT RACING RETURN
By clarifying things for National Hunt racing it also gives everyone the chance to focus solely on the flat racing for now and how to bring that back effectively. It is not great for anybody but they are the ones missing out on the start of their core season. For example, horses that missed out on this year’s Grand National can hopefully be back for the race next year albeit a year older. A lot of flat races, like the Derby are age specific and you only get one chance at these races. The repercussions are quite massive both for the racing and breeding industries.
It seems like there will be a phased return to racing with hopefully the flat getting going at the beginning of May. Everything changes day by day but I have to confess normality seems a long way off at this stage. While I know I am very lucky to have wide open spaces around me and jobs to do to keep myself occupied and this time, there are plenty of people struggling right now. I thought it was a great speech from The Queen last night. We all have our part to play at this difficult time and we all must do are bit right now to ensure that as a country we come through this together as quickly and as best we can. These are unprecedented times and will go down in history as one of the toughest challenges the world has faced in our lifetime.
KEEPING BUSY
Away from the racing the kids are also keeping me fairly well occupied. Even though they are officially on Easter holidays we are still doing PE with Joe Wicks every day and there is also a family football match in the garden every evening as well. While the teams are pretty even, let’s just say my son Jack takes losing just about as well as I do! The girls love visiting the horses each day. Miss Tynte has always been one of their favourites and Leanne captured them having a cuddle with her this morning. 
Miss Tynte with Martha & Sophie
QUIZ RESULTS
I hope everyone enjoyed having a go at our emoji quiz last week, please find the answers below. The plan for this week is for the staff to have a yard quiz via Zoom one evening. We do have a great team spirit here at the yard and we are all looking after each other and it is bringing out the best in many people. I will let you know who wins the quiz! Take care, stay home and stay safe everyone.
