10th March…

pippa666 ♦ March 10, 2023

Smart Boyo – surely he can brake his string of seconds today? He has been ultra consistent this season with 4 2nd’s so far this winter

Its a busy day ahead for the team with 7 runners. 6 up at Ayr if the snow miraculously doesnt ruin the plans!!! My Strong Man (below), Misscarlett, Robert Johnson, Smart Boyo (above), Zwicky and Court Justice are all set to run, and Caracristi heads in the other direction to Wolverhampton for the 4.25 h’cap.

My Strong Man – known as ‘Tonto’ to his friends

**Update!** We have had 2 seconds & a third so far at Ayr and it doesn’t get much closer than SMART BOYO beaten in a photo and in front a stride past the line for his FIFTH 2nd of the winter!! Zwicky flying late on for a good 3rd, and could have done better had he not been hampered by a faller. My Strong Man also ran another stormer for 2nd and we thought his day had come – so close. Well done everyone!

A very near miss for Smart Boyo with Joe, followed by Zwicky in 3rd with Tommy

Cheltenham Preview Night…

We had our Cheltenham preview night on Wednesday in ‘The Green Oak’ bar with a panel of Phil, Tommy Dowson, Joe Williamson and our budding trainer-in-the-making Indy Kirby all taking your questions streamed live on Facebook. It was held in aid of the IJF and has raised in excess of £650, not bad for a few hrs work! We hope those of you who tuned in found it interesting if not entertaining!

Our latest foals….

Lady Chloe has safely welcomed what will be her last foal, a tall Logician filly on Wednesday night. It wasn’t a straight forward birth but she was excellently looked after throughout by Kinsale Farm and Stud – huge thanks goes to them. The white face of the family has struck again – there is no mistaking any of Lady Chloe’s offspring, she definitely puts her stamp on them all! Bred by PKR and Ace Bloodstock, we look forward to seeing her strengthen up out in our fields over the coming warmer months.

We also received news that Dares To Dream has safely had her colt foal by Nathaniel (above) and he has been given stable name ‘Coco’ by her owners granddaughter – congrats to you all!

The excitement is building for Cheltenham next week and we are all set to go with both Top Ville Ben and Jason The Militant ready and waiting to take their place in the line up. All our fingers and toes are crossed for the forecast and we hope to see them both safely home having given their best as always. Its a great privilege to have runners at the bigger meetings and we thank The Harbour Rose Partnership (Ben) & Grant Nicholson (Jason) for entrusting their horses to us.

Ben above enjoying the snow with Simon today, and the view aboard Jason below

Martalindy schooling above with Tommy is due to make her debut over fences this month. She is one of our 3 PKR Club horses and there is still time to join if you want to get a bit closer to the action. All new members can now get the addition of a keyring to their already impressive welcome pack!

The PKR welcome pack

Lone Star is fast becoming a stable star and is heading to Musselburgh in a fortnight for the Lady Buttons series final. Herself and Joe have struck up a great partnership and it would be great to see them win another! Best of luck to them and owners Peter Rawcliffe and John & Ann Cornfirth.

Lone Star saying ‘Hi’ to Scalloway Castle

Some pics from the past few days….

We have had a couple of new horses to welcome to the yard. This is Icouldntpassherby above, Katie has given her the stable name ‘Ellie’. Joining her with us is Jinglegangle Jet, we look forwards to getting them going and hope to have lots of good luck for them and new owners to the yard Joelor Racing.

Zwicky with Tommy who rode him at Ayr today – a first homebred racehorse for our sponsor Topspec. He won last time out and was unlucky today with being hampered by a faller.

Employee Awards!

We have introduced a little perk of the month to the yard in the form of ‘Employee of the month’. The first win goes to yardman Keith Walker who has been with us many years behind the scenes since our days at Middleham began (2013ish). He has had to step up over recent months to include more handling of the horses in and out of the fields and on and off the walker, which previously wasn’t part of his daily duties. He has done it without complaint and we thought it only right to show him some appreciation for his extra efforts – well done Keith!

3yr old gelding ‘Albert’ (Getaway out of Helen Wood) has been getting some education in the department of learning to be brushed, have rugs on and generally enjoy being handled in the stable. He is an a grade student! A name with meaning, ‘Albert’ was named after the sad passing of ‘Uncle Albert’ formally known as Alan Broadwith. He worked for us when we moved to Sharp Hill and eventually moved with us to Green Oaks. He was usually the first one on the yard and read his paper before 6 or 7 am start. Albert was still happily working for us filling water buckets at 78 when he sadly died, he just loved to come to work and we saw it only fitting to name a foal after him. We also have a bench in his memory at the yard looking out over the gallops from outside the office window. RIP Uncle Albert, we hope our ‘Albert’ does you proud.

Top Cat and Benny defo have the right idea with the freezing weather outside! Venturing out only to go in search of pizza (below) in the bar…disgusted he may have to open the box himself to retrieve a piece!!!!