An exciting week and the buzz around the yard is definitely getting bigger and a visit from Luke Harvey from Sky Sports today to interview myself and Beth with Back On The Lash. Mark and Elliott Boothright were both in to watch the horses on the gallops and Paul Davis and Nigel & Karen McAllen here too but they looked more nervous than usual and with good reason….
We head to Stratford Racecourse today with two horses making their racecourse debuts in the concluding Bumper at 4.40pm. The first of those, Kalibrate, was purchased by us as a foal in November 2018 as a new initiative to buy foals due to older store horses getting so expensive. Kalibrate, or Herbie to his friends, is by Califet and bred by Boardsmill Stud and they bred our superstar Champion Court and Herbie looks quite like him….! Here’s dreaming! We partnered Herbie out over the following months and everyone has been able to follow his journey via visits, WhatsApp photos & videos and also watching him being backed and ridden away at Martin Jones’ Redmarley base plus on the gallops here. It’s been a wonderful journey and, like any parent will tell you, it’s gone like a flash! Good luck to his wonderful syndicate of owners and especially Neil Lloyd who is MD for our yard sponsor FBC Manby Bowdler but who is also celebrating his birthday today.
Herbie has James Best on board and whilst he may find the track a little sharp as he’s quite a big chap, he will hopefully not disgrace himself and enjoy his debut whilst learning a lot too.
Another debutante is Love of Neymore, bred by Judy & Richard Pullen and out of Love of Tara who we trained to win 3 races and in fact was the winner Sam Twiston-Davies needed to ride in his first Grand National. Love of Neymore (Mabel) is a sweet filly who does everything nicely at home – she’s a smaller framed horse than Kalibrate but I can’t wait to see her on the course either. If she’s got the same heart as her mum then she’ll give us all a lot of fun.
For both these horses today is about taking it all in, enjoying themselves, relaxing and learning about racing and anything else is a bonus. Very much looking forward to 4.40pm at Stratford and then we can start thinking about Cheltenham! Good luck Herbie & Mabel – what an exciting day ahead.