Grand National Saturday

pippa666 ♦ April 11, 2015

We are all wishing James Reveley the VERY BEST OF LUCK  today as he lines up at 4.15 for The Grand National. I am sure there will be a very big party at Lingdale tonight if he can bring the trophy back to North Yorkshire.

We are lowering our sights rather with Chloe’s Image in the selling handicap at Wolverhampton this evening. It is no secret that we are struggling with some horses not performing as they should, Phil and the team are tearing their hair out with frustration, if they were running well we would fancy Chloe to run well today as she is off a low mark and looks superb. Judge for yourself, she is pictured below here with Julie yesterday:

Chloe’s Image

It has been  a particularly frustrating time for us all in all,  but all we can do is press on, work hard and try to pin point any problem we can find to get our yard firing the winners back in.  I took these photos yesterday, it was a beautiful morning at Middleham and the horses were gleaming in their coats.

Courtown Oscar – runs Carlisle Monday

Steve Ketlewell untacking the big horse, Courtown Oscar

Indalo Returns – schooled super over fences during the week

Factor Fifty – saying hello to ‘Tato’

The two year olds stretching out, Ice galley nearest the camera

Our day started well but quickly went downhill fast. We were given the horrendous news that Helen Wood had accidentally kicked her filly foal when at stud at Shade Oak, broken her leg under the knee, and had to be put to sleep. What a waste of a life after 11 months of waiting, so sad, and no foal to come back to Dibble Bridge with Helen. We then endured a nightmare result at Aintree with Sakhee’s City running no sort of race and Adam pulling him up as he wasn’t traveling at all, certainly not his running as he has performed well on all his starts and was going better than ever at home. It was a long drive back for all concerned and while we started the days with lots of hope, this puts us back to square one.  It was back to work early for Phil, collecting jockey Brian Toomey on the way who has been riding out at the yard recently – Brian is fully recovered from a horrendous injury when race-riding and is very keen to get his licence back.

Episode with Brian

Flat jockey Declan Cannon was also in to ride out, back from a successful stint in Dubai , he is now getting ready to jet off to raceride in America. He is pictured here on Istimraar and also rode out the Arcano breeze up  two year old who he thought was very pleasing.

Declan riding Istimraar

The Arcano 2 year old heading to The Breeze Up Sales, looking really forward.

Our other Breeze Up 2 year old is the very good looking Archipenko colt, both are owned by Castleton Bloodstock. He is pictured below.

The colt by Archipenko x Sparkling Clear

The yearling fillies in the paddock were full of the joys of Spring, pictured here is the flat fillies by Arcano ( chestnut) Equiano ( medium bay) and the NH prospect ( dark brown) by Beneficial.