It had been a New Year of 2nd’s, 7 to be precise – My Strong Man (Catterick), Raffles Rebel (Wolves & Southwell), Smart Boyo (Newcastle & Southwell), and Bushypark at Newcastle. There were many painfully close 2nd’s too, but as some with a competitive nature may say, 2nd is the first loser!
Bushypark thankfully ended the trend and pulled off a fantastically bold win at his first attempt over the marathon trip to bring the North Yorkshire Grand National home to his Green Oaks Partnership, plenty of which were there to enjoy the day with us and share the many bottles of celebratory champagne afterwards. It was a great watch, Bushy was in his element and hopped his way round under a confident ride by Tommy out in front the whole way, pulling well clear on the run to the line before easing down to a 3 and a half length win. All the better to think he had only ran at Newcastle the Saturday before, clearly putting him spot on for going one better yesterday at Catterick. Phil had no doubts about the run coming too soon. Bushy had previously won 3 in 9 days before he seemed to lose his way for a while, but after his 2nd at Newcastle we were hopeful the old Bushy was back, and he is! We would like to think he had the luck of a special little horse to us Little Bruce with him too, who returned to us yesterday- the winner of the race back in 2020. It was just meant to be that Bushy won. A great day all round in many ways for all involved with PKR. Its great to see so many well wishes and messages on our Facebook page/email/twitter etc, it means a lot to know you are so enthusiastically supporting us – thanks to you all! Many of the great photo’s below are courtesy of Hannah Ali.
Traveling head lass Katie – very happy with Bushy!
Enjoying a well deserved pick of grass
Celebrations last night at the yard
Is anybody still looking for that slightly different partnership oppotunity?
We have a few partnerships that run from foal-to-racehorse and they get great feedback. Obviously not for anyone in search of that instant chance of a win, but for those that get satisfaction from seeing a horse through its early days, how it develops through its education before heading out on the track as a racehorse. We currently have 2 shares available in ‘Teddy’ our yearling colt by Order Of St George out of a half sister to our now retired superstar mare the multiple winning Lady Buttons. Please contact Pippakirby@icloud.com for details.
Teddy
Some pics from the past few days…
Meg with Tonto aka My Strong Man hopes to go one closer next time out at Wetherby for his The Platinum Partnership
Phil (centre) having a sit on Jason The Militant, a new recruit to the yard for owner Grant Nicholson. Holds an exciting Champion Hurdle entry for us – fingers crossed for rain in March!
New team member for 2023 Oliver on Smart Boyo
Misscarlett – a good 3rd at Newcastle last week, a dual hurdle winning mare