- Thursday, 16 February 2012 08:12
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
We have been enjoying the slightly milder weather over the last few days and I am pleased to be able to bring you some nice photographs from the gallops. Ante-post Grand National favourite Junior is pictured as he is put through his paces alongside decent ex-flat stayer and winning hurdler Ashbrittle. Junior makes his long awaited seasonal reappearance in a handicap hurdle at Newbury tomorrow. Also in action were The Pier and Painter Man, who both hold upcoming engagements - weather permitting of course!
- Wednesday, 15 February 2012 08:10
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
The long journey up to Ayr paid off yesterday as The Tracey Shuffle came home unchallenged to score a 31 length success in the maiden hurdle. I thought he jumped well on the whole with a couple of exceptions in the home straight which I put down to the ground. Afterwards there was a great interview on Racing UK with owner Sean Tracey who had been demonstrating exactly what The Tracey Shuffle is...one thing is clear, Sean is not a dancer! Having said that, he spoke very well and certainly championed David's talents as a trainer - I think David definitely owes Sean a drink!
- Tuesday, 14 February 2012 09:01
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
We have just the one runner this afternoon and it is a long way up to Ayr with The Tracey Shuffle. The owners live in Scotland so there will be plenty of support for our runner and hopefully they will all be celebrating a win for their six year old. The horsebox left yesterday morning at 10am so the horse can have a good night's rest after all that travelling.
- Monday, 13 February 2012 08:03
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
The cold weather continues to take it's belated hold on the racing calendar and consequently there is just one meeting on this afternoon on the all-weather this afternoon at Wolverhampton. Hopefully we will get some jumping tomorrow at Ayr - the Scottish track seeems to be fine at present and is the saviour for us National Hunt fans. There is an inspection planned for 2pm this afternoon at Folkestone ahead of their meeting scheduled for tomorrow - apparently the track is covered in snow and frozen in places so it does not look too hopeful.
- Sunday, 12 February 2012 00:00
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
It was with great sadness that we had to break the news that Bobby Ewing died yesterday. He collapsed and died of a heart attack on the gallops while doing his normal routine exercise on Saturday morning. Bobby held entries in the Champion and World Hurdles and although he had not run for the yard and had been off the track since 2009 we were eagerly awaiting his return at the Festival as he had been working extremely well and had been pleasing us at home. He will be sadly missed by us all as he was a true gentleman and a pleasure to have in the yard and sadly we will never know how good he could have been.
With the Cheltenham Festival coming up trainers want to get runs into their horses but they do not want to run them too close to the Festival itself as you have to allow the horses time to get over their races. It is good to see that Newbury have rescheduled their meeting for Friday having lost the meeting yesterday and the trainers can get a proper race into some of their horses if they need to. Lets just hope the weather allows it to take place and remember it is free entry into the track so make sure you have a day out!
- Saturday, 11 February 2012 08:09
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
Roi De Rose - hopefully runs at Exeter
Only one jump meeting has survived the bad weather today and again it is in Scotland at Musselburgh! This is only the second lot of jumping action in several days and the only other meeting to beat the freeze was Ayr earlier in the week! Thank goodness for Scottish racing, it is quite ironic as usally they get the worst of the weather up there! I saw the pictures of Newbury yesterday and it was completely covered in snow. They had no chance of racing. It is great they called it off nice and early and have in fact had the chance to reschedule the meeting for Friday 17th February. That is something to really look forward to as there were some mouthwatering races in prospect and what is even better is that it will be free entry in the course so make sure you book a day off work and head to Newbury! I do not live far from Exeter races and I think they have a fair chance of racing tomorrow, although at the yard it is -6c this morning so we will just have to wait and see! Temperatures plunged to -18c in Buckinghamshire last night but down in Torbay this morning at 6am it was +3c, quite tropical compared to the rest of the country!
- Friday, 10 February 2012 07:56
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
I was very saddened to hear the news that Josh Gifford passed away yesterday morning at the age of 70. Josh was a real mans man. When I was playing table tennis exhibitions on the Isle of Wight I can remember the owner of a small holiday camp called Arthurfield Bay telling me stories of the cricket team Josh brought over to the Island to play the locals every year. Fred Norman, the owner of the camp said the bar takings were always the best of the season when Josh's cricket team were on the camp! I can still picture their team photo on the wall of one of the bars and they all looked like they had a good time. Josh was a great old fashioned trainer who will be sadly missed by everyone. A racing legend.
