I was absolutely thrilled yesterday when Somewhere To Be jumped for fun before quickening away to win over fences at the first time of asking and in doing so become owner/breeder Zara Tindall’s first homebred winner and indeed the first winner we have trained for her. Zara was understandably delighted too although couldn’t be there herself she was straight on the phone. With Richard Johnson & Aidan Coleman unavailable and Andrew Tinkler suspended yesterday Zara and I decided on Leighton Aspell to partner “Gary” and what a fantastic job he did, filling him with confidence and giving him a super ride. His first ride for us so a day of firsts! I’m sure a bright future becons for Gary as he’s only 5 years old and absolutely jumped for fun (as you would expect I guess from where he came from!). Brilliant.
At Worcester My Lad Percy ran a solid race to finish 5th on his return to action after over 750 days off the track and he seems all good this morning. A real favourite in the yard I’m sure he’ll be winning soon. Cup of Ambition ran a much better race than he has been doing to also finish 5th but we are still convinced he’s better than that so will get him checked over again and have a good chat with his owners about where we go next with him.
All horses just cantering this morning so an easy day. Alex Steedman in for a couple of lots and physio Hannah Ashton in this morning too.
Delighted to welcome new owners to the yard this morning too. Mike and Mella Wright joined us this morning, they have been here a few times before, and have purchased Twentyoneblackjack which is fantastic. He’s a horse whose future will lie over fences in time and I know we are going to have a lot of fun with Mike and Mella along the way. So a fabulous 24 hours and now all systems go to three great days of racing at Cheltenham this weekend. We won’t have many runners this time but hope to see lots of you there.