A quiet weekend

pippa666 ♦ March 8, 2014

Its a hard life! This is Richie and Nicky’s lovely dog who spends most of his mornings at Sharp Hill.

The new gallops video is imminent but it is taking time to name all the horses on it!

No runners this weekend but some interesting entries next week, not least Pass Muster in the Silver cup at Fakenham – he will be clashing horns with our former hurdler ‘Fujin dancer’ – a bit of friendly rivalry – we still have a lovely young horse for Fujins Owners, the Bethell family.

I will also be bringing you news of our former in training ‘Word of Warning’ who makes his show horse debut tomorrow. Smokey as he is known is going so well at home, i am just hoping that after 43 runs he realises he is doing something different other than racing when he arrives at the show tomorrow! he is pictured here with Izzy our daughter.

No more foals to report yet but maiden mare Pickworth is due in around 3 or 4 days. She is not looking imminent though and we expect her to go over her time. Royalty looks sure to have her foal early, she is HUGE – exciting times and we look forward to bring you news as soon as we have it.

Izzy Kirby with Pickworth last week.

Ustica by Trans Island.

Avidity making over £80,000 at the May Sales last year

Earlier this week ‘Ustica’ was sold to go to Jonjo’s yard – sorry to lose such a nice young horse but he was produced for this job and he did it really well with tons of scope to improve as he further matures – we will all watch his progress with interest. the same for ‘Avidity’ who left us at DBS sales last Spring – he won his novice hurdle in impressive fashion for James Ewart at Ayr yesterday and beat a decent flat horse, and Avidity would have hated the ground, he won well in despite of it. He looks to have strengthened up into a gorgeous horse and we wish James all the luck with him – perhaps we will see him at the big Aintree or Ayr meetings. Avidity is by PASSING GLANCE, a much (as yet) underrated stallion of the Pitchall stud, but he is getting plenty of winners and it wont be long before his profile takes off. We are sending ROYALTY to him, the dam of Agglestone Rock.

This extract from an internet Breeders article about him iwill be interesting to those of you who are into breeding…

Passing Glance retired to the National Stud as a six-year-old in 2005 at a fee of £3,000. He clearly had the potential to make a decent sire, notwithstanding the fact that he had been just a few lengths off the very best in his racing days. However, he had made the fatal error of proving his soundness and durability and, as we keep seeing, the ‘commercial’ breeding fraternity had no interest in a horse who had raced for four seasons and retired sound at the end of a long and honest career. After one poorly patronised season at the National Stud, he was relocated to Pitchall Farm with his fee lowered (to £2,000). He has remained there ever since, barring a season at Walton Fields Stud.

It is a startling thought that, with the members of his first crop now aged seven, Passing Glance has only had 25 individual runners on the Flat in Britain and Ireland combined. These horses have generally come from undistinguished mares. Eight of them have won a total of 23 races. He has been represented by a similar amount of runners and winners under National Hunt rules, with the super-tough Attaglance, a winner over hurdles in 2012 at both the Cheltenham and Aintree Festivals, being the star in that sphere. On the flat, the starring role has been taken by Side Glance, who was bred by Kingsclere Stud and who began his racing career carrying Mr. Mellon’s old colours before being bought by Sheikh Fahad al Thani in August 2011 after winning a maiden race at Newmarket, handicaps at Chester and Ascot and Listed races at Ascot and Windsor. Since joining the Pearl Bloodstock/Qatar Racing fold, Side Glance has followed in his father’s footsteps by winning the Diomed Stakes and the Sovereign Stakes – and most recently taken his achievements to a higher plane altogether by landing the Mackinnon.

Mrs Eff

Mrs Eff is looking for a very good home as a broodmare – she is a 3 x winner by a winning mare herself. She has a fab temperament and is a substantially built mare by Tagula – she has also shown her aptitude for jumping fences as displayed by her close 2nd at Wetherby on her final start. Please email with your number if interested

wakingned1@hotmail.com