It’s been an eventful week and before I go any further, I have to make reference to my son, Jack’s fantastic haul at the weekend.  He went fishing to a carp lake in Hemyock and whilst he was there, he caught his biggest ever fish…a 10.9lbs carp!  It took all of his strength to reel it in and land it, but he was helped by a very kind gentleman who was angling nearby.  You can see how proud Jack is from the picture – he loves sport of all kinds and this will only serve to encourage him further.

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Last week marked the second manifestation of National Racehorse Week – an initiative introduced to broaden the public’s knowledge of the care and attention that our beloved friend, the racehorse receives away from the track and we opened the doors to Pond House for in excess of 150 visitors.

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Last week racing lost its greatest patron with the very sad passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.  It is well known that the Queen had long adored her horses and her staunch support of the industry will be impossible to replace.  Not only was she a keen racegoer, first attending Royal Ascot in 1946 and every year until finally unable this year, she was a very shrewd breeder, whilst her colours were carried to many a famous victory on the flat and over jumps.  Things will never be the same again and the world as well as the entire racing community will continue to mourn her loss.

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The stable continues in good form and from our seven runners last week, we notched another winner with El Paso Wood’s success at Stratford taking our tally at this early part of the season to 25, whilst all of our other runners filled the frame.

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As you will be well aware by now, the Pond House team have long been synonymous with purchasing horses from sellers and claimers, be it on the flat or over jumps, in England or in France and I was delighted to secure the winner of the 1m3f three year old seller at Goodwood yesterday (Sunday) afternoon.  Borntobealeader was convincing in beating the favourite by 3¾ lengths with a further 6½ lengths back to the third and he looks tailor made for juvenile hurdles this season.  We have already had him in the loose school and I am looking forward seeing how he gets on in the weeks and months ahead.

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Despite drawing a blank last week, the majority of our runners performed creditably and we were rewarded with a few places here and there.  With only a handful of jumps meetings this week (and many of those up country) we are likely to be a bit quieter this week, bar tomorrow where we will have runners at a couple of fixtures.

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Although we only had one runner over the weekend, it was great to be back racing after a couple of weeks without the jumps during the summer break.  It has seemed like a lot longer, but we were able to use the time constructively, finishing off the improvements to the roofs in the front yard and getting in the remainder of the winter campaigners.    Indeed, it is bustling around the place at present and there is a palpable air of anticipation amongst the staff.

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