- Tuesday, 29 March 2011 07:05
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
Congratulations to Robert Thornton who rode his 1000th winner yesterday at Towcester. He now has Richard Dunwoody and Peter Scudamore well within his sights on 1678 and 1699 winners respectively - he says that he hopes to be riding until he is forty...that is another eight years. It would be some achievement if he could match those multiple champions in terms of races won, although at the head of the list, A P McCoy and Richard Johnson look to be well out of reach. In order for Choc to reach AP, he would probably have to ride until he's 100!
- Monday, 28 March 2011 07:08
- Written by Chester Barnes
Conor O'Farrell's hot streak continued yesterday when he won on E Street Boy at Wincanton. The official winning distance was 2½ lengths but he did win fairly comfortably so I think the handicapper will raise our five year old quite a lot. It was a Conditional jockeys race however so he can potentially run without carrying a penalty again before the handicapper has his say. Our only other runner yesterday, Choumakeur had one off his off days. He can be a little quirky and although he did finish a well beaten third there will be another day for him. Buena Vista also went to Wincanton to parade. Wincanton had assembled and eight strong team of horse who performed well at the Cheltenham Festival and included Al Ferof, Big Buck's, Denman, Kauto Star, Captain Chris, Holmwood Legend and Oiseau De Nuit. It was a great idea by the course so the public could see the stars of the National Hunt Season and Buena Vista really enjoyed his day out!
- Sunday, 27 March 2011 00:00
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
If you are planning a trip to Wincanton races this afternoon, you are in for an additional treat. Between the fifth and sixth races there will be a parade of some of the West country Cheltenham Festival winners including our very own Buena Vista. Also in the line-up are Big Buck's, Oiseau de Nuit, Denman and Kauto Star. There should be plenty to see and do for the whole family, including a twenty runner mascots race to raise funds for the Children's Trust. Let's hope there is not an Olympic class athlete dressed up in one of those mascot suits...I know it sounds stupid, but it happened once at Huntingdon and a few bookmakers had their fingers well and truly burnt!
- Saturday, 26 March 2011 08:17
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
We were joined in the yard by master wordsmith Alistair Down yesterday afternoon. Amazingly, in all the years he has been writing (for the Life and now for the Post), this was Alistair's first visit to Pond House. Following his Festival success aboard Buena Vista, he had come down to speak with man of the moment Conor O'Farrell. Indeed, while Alistair lists this year's Cheltenham Gold Cup as one of the greatest races he has ever seen, he also included Buena Vista's repeat triumph in the Pertemps Hurdle as one of his highlights of the meeting. Alistair was more than happy to pose for the camera with the horse - fortunately for him our mechanical horse is away being serviced at present, otherwise you would have been looking at a picture of him aboard that instead! Keep a look out for Alistair's piece about Conor - it should be in the Post on Monday.
- Friday, 25 March 2011 08:03
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
It seems that the flat trainers are going to go along the same lines as many of the leading jumps trainers by shunning racecourses that do not meet the minimum recommended prize money levels as laid out by the Horsemens Group Tariff. Richard Hannon is the latest high profile name to his support to the action - I am saddened that we are not going to see any more of his good-things on a Monday night at Windsor...you could almost always rely on a Hannon hotpot obliging at one of his favourite tracks!
- Thursday, 24 March 2011 08:33
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
I didn't realise that John Gosden trained horses for Liz Taylor, the superstar actress who sadly passed away yesterday. Apparently she had horses in training with John when he trained in Los Angeles and he said, "She loved her horses and was the perfect owner, Elizabeth liked nothing better than coming to the stables to feed the horses carrotts and sugar lumps, if she could have run a petting zoo for horses, that would have been perfect for her". The film that everyone remembers of course is National Velvet, where she won the Grand National and was then disqualified when they fond out that she was a girl - I bet that film will be on the televsion again shortly, especially with Aintree only a fortnight away.
- Wednesday, 23 March 2011 08:04
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
If I owned a rocking horse I would put Conor O'Farrrell on it and what is more I would have a few quid on as well! It seems that the red-hot young Irishman can win on just about anything at the moment and yesterday he steered Laustra Bad to his first success in nearly four years at Exeter. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him turn out again under a penalty before the handicapper has a chance to reassess him and try to stop him from winning for another four years!
