Winning Entry

    Final Entry - Winner at Newton Abbot

It was a nice win for Final Entry of hurdling and stable debut at Newton Abbot on Sunday.  We bought him from an online sale earlier this summer out of the Jessica Harrington yard as he is the full-brother to our very own Mr Tambourine Man who is a five-time hurdle winner.  Final Entry had schooled very well at home in the lead up to but you may not have thought that if you had watched the race and he nearly never got further than the first hurdle!  Thankfully, he found his feet and Jack sat tight and then let him warm to his task.  He saved his best jump for the final flight and battled on well on the extended run in (the final flight was omitted). 

We know there is a lot of improvement to come but it was a very pleasing performance.  He is still a colt and he will be gelded at some point but he is likely to have a run on the flat while jumps racing takes a break before returning to hurdling at Newton Abbot again at the beginning of September.  He was our eleventh winner of the season and we are currently operating at an 18% strike rate so thinks are ticking along nicely for this time of year.

Only Fools ran another solid race to finish third at Uttoxeter last week while Coltor also ran a nice race back on the flat at Beverley to be third.  He was giving a lot of weight away in the race won by the favourite and he kept galloping to the line strongly.  Rebel Angel bounced back to form with a close fifth on the flat at Chepstow – there was a four way photo for third place!  That was over 1m2f and she stayed on strongly at the end and will definitely appreciate a return to a bit further next time.  Manuelito unfortunately disappointed in the summer hurdle at Market Rasen on Saturday and pulled up.  This race had been his target since his last win at Ffos Las and despite seeming in good form at home he did not run his race.  He had been in training a long time so might have been a bridge too far at this stage of his career but he has now gone on his holidays and remains a youngster full of potential when he returns in the autumn.

This Week

It is a fairly quiet start to the week on the runners front and our first runner will come on the flat on Thursday at Sandown with Ocean Heights.  We drop him back in trip as we felt he didn’t stay last time and he is in good form at home.  There are only seven runners and it is a competitive race but we have the assistance of Rossa Ryan in the saddle and I would not be surprised of a bold run at an each way price.

We were due to have runners at Worcester on Thursday but with field sizes reduced, we were unfortunately balloted out with Chemical Warfare.  He is likely to run at Uttoxeter on Friday instead.  Back in the Bay, Steppenwolf and Bashful Boy are amongst our entries at that meeting so keep an eye on the Daily News for the latest information on the stable runners.  There is racing at Uttoxeter on Friday and on Sunday and then that is it for jumps racing until the middle of August.  While I agree racing needs to take a break it doesn’t seem quite right how they have it set up at the moment.  Field sizes for races this week are full and competitive, because people are trying to get a run before there is no racing.  This is a good thing but I just think three weeks is a bit of a funny time period, why not do a whole month and give everyone a bit of a break.  The horses still need to be exercised to be ready for when racing returns so while the jockeys will get a nice little break, horses need to be kept on the go, staff are kept busy and owners have nowhere to go!

Doncaster Sales

Apologies for my blog being a day late this week but it was a long day at Doncaster sales yesterday!  We travelled up to Doncaster on Sunday evening and Jack came for his first visit to a horse sale.  He loved every minute!  He had studied the catalogue beforehand and picked out some horses to have a look at.  This we did, he had a few bids and he is now the proud owner of the horse, African Lady.  A four-year-old filly, who has just had the five runs over hurdles in Ireland showing promise.  I have set him the challenge of being involved in the entire process from finding her an owner, to her training regime and race planning!  I think he has her nearly sold so watch this space for more to follow on how everything goes!  We also purchased a nice five-year-old called Sirekoff who finished second in his last start over hurdles at Downpatrick and will be in action this side of the Irish sea when racing returns in August.  It was an exciting sale with the dispersal of the horses owned by Chris Giles and there was new record set when Regent’s Stroll was bought back by the Nicholls team for £660,000 – the highest price paid for a National Hunt horse at a public auction.   He certainly took the eye in the sales ring and on his performances on the racecourse.  Cheltenham Festival winner, Stay Away Fay also returns to Ditcheat after being bought back for £325,000 and there were several other highly priced lots as well.  Jack very much enjoyed his first experience of the sales and cannot wait to again.  He met plenty of notable racing people and particularly enjoyed meeting and having photos with top Irish amateur point to point jockeys Derek O’Connor and Rob James and owners such as Eddie O’Leary and John Hales to name just a few!

 Champions Full Gallop

On Friday evening, I tuned into watch the first episode of the new series ‘Champions Full Gallop’ on ITV.  It followed the lead up to the King George and the race itself last December and I thought it was very well done.  While a lot of us in the racing world know a lot of what was covered, to the general public it gave a lovely insight into what goes on behind the scenes and sold the dream that anything is possible with the fairy tale of Hewick winning the big race.  It was some much-welcomed good publicity for our sport on prime time mainstream TV and I look forward to episode two next week which features the champion jockeys tussle between Harry Cobden and Sean Bowen though I do believe for those of you very keen, you can already stream it on ITVX!

Family Holiday

I returned last Tuesday from a lovely family holiday in Portugal, in the Algarve.  The weather was very hot but with the kids now growing up fast, the girls especially love copying their mum relaxing on the sunbeds while Jack and I enjoyed having fun in the pool.  Jack was especially pleased to come home however as he had missed riding is pony and going racing!