Happy New Year!!!

pippa666 ♦ January 11, 2024

This is our Christmas compilation created by Pippa which i thought you might like to see – better late than never for those of you who don’t do Facebook…..

We have had a busy Christmas & New Year as always with plenty of runners and also squeezing in 2 PKR Club mornings before Christmas. We have been totally spoilt and must thank all of you who have sent the many sweet treats, drink, biscuits, mince pies etc……they have been very well received and have kept the hungry team going through the festive period – THANK YOU!!!!

The rain has been relentless and we have seen so many tracks struggling to keep their meetings on. Stratford and Worcester have been badly affected and look like a boat would be preferable to a horse unfortunately. Paul Nicholls had to evacuate his stables recently due to their flooding – it has to be the worst year yet for the rain, but we are thankful that we have managed to keep going and are lucky we don’t seem to be suffering as much as some. Thanks goes to everyone in the team who has helped keep the yard up and running through the tough weather.

Boxing Day was our busiest day runners-wise with a team of 8 going out to 4 tracks…..

There is always a slight disappointment without a Boxing Day winner but Top Ville Ben came very close for 2nd at Aintree. He is a tough cookie, gave it his all to just get pipped at the post and at now 12 yrs old we think he did great! We also had Mick’s Jet and Special Rate in the places at Wetherby. We learnt plenty from Mick’s Jet’s result and she had a good experience. Staying is her game and on this occasion and with a change of tactics for her hurdling debut, the race just didn’t play to her strengths but she jumped well for Joe and she remains an exciting mares prospect. Special Rate simply had a quietish day, whether it was the slow ground or just the quicker pace of jumping in an open handicap, but he has won 5 on the bounce so we can forgive him his 4th placed effort in good company. Casa Luna had no luck in running at all at Wolverhampton and Golfe Clair ran a pleasing comeback at Sedgefield following 18 months off the track.

Ben & Phil at Aintree

Todays Runners….

We have 3 at Catterick today – Caracristi and Rose De La Jarrie are in the mares maiden hurdle. Then its Bushypark in the North Yorkshire Grand National making a bid to retain the trophy for a 2nd year! His partnership owners have been excitedly looking forwards to this and we were all praying he would get his ground – and i think you could safely say he has it – we may send him with a paddle! Joe takes the reins today and we have all our fingers and toes crossed in the hope that Bushy can bring it home again for us and his Green Oaks Partnership at our most local track – we could hack to it if we needed to!

Anthem National – Our Globe Trotting Runner

Anthem National is still out in Bahrain and has been doing very well with a 5th on his first run out there followed by a good 3rd in a valuable handicap on 29th Dec. He runs again tomorrow and we will be hoping he can continue with his top efforts – hitting the winners spot would just make it perfect for owners James & Susan Cookson before he returns home towards the end of Feb. You can catch his races on the site below….

January also signals the start of foaling season for racing yards and below is the order of our expected arrivals, but they never stick to the schedule so it will be fun to see who decides to come first!

There is a charity Boxing match taking place in March and a few of our staff will be getting involved so keep your eye on the fb page for updates!

‘Cheeeeeesse!’

Tonto (above) is a much loved partnership homebred – he was one of our New Years Day runners at Catterick and gave his all for 2nd.

Spanish Buttons (above) not long now until he will hopefully be hitting a race course for his debut – a nephew of Lady Buttons, it goes without saying he has BIG hooves to fill!