Wow what an incredible 48 hours – apologies for no Blog yesterday, it was a very busy morning but we now have another winner to talk about too!
At Southwell on Tuesday we had a fabulous day. Our 1st runner was Mozzaro who was making his chasing debut for Owners for Owners:Mozzaro and we were all hoping that they would make a man of him. He’s been a very green and backward horse and Deb Butler, who rides him out every day and is a part owner too, has worked hard on him and we’ve always hoped that he wasn’t just good looking! James Best, who knows him well, got him jumping really well and, when headed approaching 2 out, Mozzie rallied approaching the last, which he flew, and he gamely led again up the run in to tough it out and post his first career success. Thrilled for Deb and for all the other owners too who have been so patient with him and really pleased for the horse too – we are sure he knows he’s won!
Mahanakhon Power (Sam Twiston-Davies) finished 4th and will hopefully be seen to better effect when he goes handicapping and Cut & Run ran a good race to also finish 4th and jumped well under Ben Godfrey. That was an improvement for her and she appreciated the step up in trip.
Our final runner was Ten Past Midnight for The Serendipity Syndicate bidding for his own hat-trick of wins with James Best in the saddle. He just keeps on improving and he soon went clear passing the omitted 2nd last. Although he was hard pressed after the last, he was always doing enough and pricked his ears approaching the line to become our 4th horse this year to complete their own hat-trick of wins at Southwell! So thrilled for Michael Chitty who heads his syndicate and who bred him. Our 300th winner (296 over jumps and 4 on the flat).
Yesterday we headed to Hereford with two runners, The Meagher Family’s Kazontherazz and Ben Buie making his debut for Martin Keighley Racing Partnership 10 headed by Paul Davis who sadly couldn’t be there. Paul does such a great job for us not only running all our Partnerships, our Racing Club and Kazontherazz’s partnership too but also keeping a very close eye on all our finances and we simply wouldn’t be where we are without him and all his help.
Kazontherazz (James Best) ran a really solid race, jumping well and for once we were thrilled with 2nd place! She’s a tough filly and we’ll continue to have plenty of fun with her I’m sure.
The very next race was Ben Buie (Sean Bowen’s only ride of the day) and we didn’t know what to expect! He’s a horse that promised everything and was a very good 2nd in his racecourse debut in a bumper to Emitom (now rated 150!) but who has has numerous problems and was, at one stage, retired and all but sold at the end of last year to go to a Riding Centre. However, I was sure I could win at least one race with him so I persuaded Paul Davis & Jon Hughes for us all to keep him in the business after the partnership was dissolved and thankfully they agreed.
Fast forward 10 months and, after 2 disappointing runs for us he had a good break and plenty of TLC from our physios Maggie Turner and Hannah Ashton, vets Bourton Vale Equine Clinic and the team here. In addition after Fiddledi Dee was retired with wind issues at the end of last month we were keen to keep the fabulous members of his partnership together so Paul came up with the idea of them all leasing Ben Buie so the transition was made less than a month ago. Thankfully the TLC worked, along with the fitting of a visor, the good ground at Hereford and a superb Sean Bowen ride….he took it up 4 out, flew the last 2 lengths clear and only had to be ridden out to post his first ever win!
Jubilant scenes followed – we were all very excited and failed to realise Sean couldn’t pull Ben up until into the back straight! We were quite possibly the noisiest group in the Winners’ Enclosure all day and it was absolutely brilliant. We missed Paul Davis but we sent him endless videos of our very special day. Everyone was so excited especially Jason Richards who was experiencing his first ever winner but I know it was a day I’ll not forget it a hurry and is why we all work so hard here – to have days like that. Our 301st winner!
All the horses are A1 this morning and the whole team are on cloud 9 and rightly so – it’s a tough job, often in bad weather and they all give their all so days like we’ve been experiencing lately make it all worthwhile.
Our statistics so far this season are very rewarding too: 31 winners from 37 different horses, 24% strike rate and +£31.64 return to £1. Well done Team and thanks to everyone who supports us.