- Sunday, 23 October 2011 00:00
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
It looks like being a busy day today with runners at both Aintree and Wincanton. Battle Group makes his seasonal debut at Liverpool, scene of his finest hour last season when winning the John Smith's Handicap Hurdle (Grade 3) at the Grand National meeting (pictured above). He will be partnered by Tom Scu who has elected to take the trip up north. We have three runners at Wincanton this afternoon and conditional jockey Conor O'Farrell rides Bathwick Man, Frosted Grape and My Brother Sylvest. My Brother Sylvest won in good style at Exeter earlier in the week and is turned out again quickly before the handicapper can have his say.
- Saturday, 22 October 2011 07:38
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
The stable has three runners this afternoon: two at Chepstow (Trop Fort and Shoegazer who will both be ridden by Tom Scudamore) and one at Stratford (Teshali with Conor O'Farrell in the saddle). It looks to be a very competitive day's action including an exciting clash between Master Minded and Albertas Run in the Old Roan Chase at Aintree. The big race of the day on the level is the Racing Post Trophy and the favourite is the Aidan O'Brien trained Camelot. Camelot cost connections £500,000 so they will be hoping to recoup some of that price tag with this £131,567.20 prize - I wonder what they would do with the odd 20 pence?!
- Friday, 21 October 2011 07:08
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
We don't have any runners this afternoon, but I have been busy down on the gallops armed with the camera and I managed to capture a few old favourites as they went through their paces. First up was Swing Bill as he completed a solo gallop, while former Hennessy winner Madison du Berlais worked in company with former Victor Chandler winner Tamarinbleu. It was certainly good to see them all looking so well in the morning sunshine.
- Thursday, 20 October 2011 07:18
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
We have a couple of runners at Ludlow this afternoon, Bathwick Scanno (ridden by Frank Hayes) and Rainy Champion (Mikey Ennis) in the juvenile hurdle. It looks like a tight little race with plenty of the runners in with a chance of sorts - hopefully ours will perform creditably and give the lads a nice ride.
I have a couple more pictures from the gallops for you - this time of Shaking Hands and Another Display, as well as old favourite Lough Derg who worked in company with Gentle Ranger.
- Wednesday, 19 October 2011 07:08
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
The stable had a good day yesterday afternoon at Exeter with a couple of winners and a second from our three runners. I know that it was only a three runner race and he was aboard the 1/9 favourite, but I still thought that young amateur jockey Tom Bellamy gave Soulard a good front running ride. Take it from me, it is not as easy as it looks to get the fractions right and he didn't panic when one came to him early in the straight - the fact that he was able to pull away again comfortably between the last two showed that he judged it nicely. Tom already looks more stylish than his father (former jockey and clerk of the course at Towcester) Robert Bellamy.
- Tuesday, 18 October 2011 06:50
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
The stable has three runners at Exeter this afternoon, Soulard, Shallow Bay and My Brother Sylvest. With the uncharacteristic dry weather that we have been having, the ground is pretty quick and consequently there are no big fields. Even so, we have had a little overnight rain and another shower or two this morning so hopefully that should have just eased the ground a little.
- Monday, 17 October 2011 07:27
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
What a great weekend of horse racing action and what another incredible perforamance from Frankel to win the QEII at Ascot. It was some training performance from Henry Cecil to keep this colt producing these sensational performances despite having been on the go since his seasonal debut back in April. A friend of mine went to the meeting and said that he has never heard the crowd so animated (even before the big races). The general consensus among the experts is that Frankel is quite possibly the greatest miler that they have ever seen, personally I always wonder why people want him to try further - the best miler of all time would be good enough for me! He is now finished for the season, but the good news is that he looks likely to be kept in training for next year.
