Festive Period

  Panic Attack & Rosie on Christmas Morning

The last week has flown by, with the return of racing and Christmas festivities it has been a fun, action packed few days. I hope you have all enjoyed a wonderful Christmas Day, however you celebrated. Mine followed the usual pattern of feeding the horses, back to the house for the kids to open their presents and then a return to the yard for riding out at 7.30am. Once the morning work was done we enjoyed a nice family lunch, a play with all the new toys before going back for afternoon stables which is a family affair. Father Christmas was very kind to the kids and they had a great day which is the main thing.

Faulty Tack

Our first runner of last week when racing returned after the cold snap was Red Happy at Ludlow. Things looked to be going to plan until we had a tack issue passing the stands with a circuit to go and Tom Scu had to pull him up. It so transpired that the buckle (the actual metal bit) had snapped on his stirrup leather. I have known the leather itself break on the very odd occasion but this was a first for me. Jockeys are responsible for their own equipment and Tom Scu regularly checks and updates his, in fact these leathers were less than two weeks old. Some things in life you just have to put down to bad luck.

Last Week Runners

We have a few runners on Wednesday and a Thursday last week and despite no winners they all ran well and we had lots of placings. Heure De Gloire, First Lord Du Cuet and New Age Dawning all finished second while American Sniper, Kepagge and Barrier Peaks all finished third. While a little frustrating not to get a winner it is nice going into a busy period to have the team in good order. A sad postscript of racing however was that we lost Red Lion Lad at Lingfield on Wednesday. He was actually in the process of running his best run for us and was challenging the leader and keeping on when Fergus Gillard had to pull him up quickly before 2 out. He sadly suffered a fatal heart attack and our thoughts are with his owners, Caroline and Hadeel.

Christmas Meal

We had a good turnout for our staff Christmas meal at Villa Verde Restaurant in Wellington last Thursday. Sadly we had a couple of late non-runners due to illness but the food was great, the drinks flowed and a good time was had by all!

Christmas Eve

Once the work was complete on Christmas Eve, myself and several of the staff headed to the local pub to have a drink for Gerry Supple’s birthday. In the evening the local Young Farmer carol singers visited Pond House for their traditional sing song. Mum invites people round for a bite to eat and it they have been coming now for an amazing 51 years. What was particularly nice this time around is that a couple of our staff members are involved with the local Wellington and Taunton YFC and were in the chorus. They did three nights in a row of visiting houses around the area and raising money for local charities. They certainly put all of us in the Christmas spirit.

Festive Period

With Christmas Day now done and dusted, Boxing Day and the rest of the festive period is now a very busy time on the racing front. We are represented at four meetings today with eight runners and the action continues thick and fast for the rest of week. It’s Coral Welsh National day tomorrow along with Kempton and Wetherby and we have our very popular local fixture at Taunton on Friday to look forward to. We have plenty entries at the meetings over the weekend as well with it of course of being New Year ’s Day on Sunday so keep checking the daily news for further updates on the stable runners.