Fantastic to have a royal winner at Worcester yesterday with HRH The Princess Royal’s homebred mare Chequered View running exactly as I hoped she would and destroying the field, winning by 17 lengths under Leighton Aspell. Visors certainly did the trick and she didn’t miss a beat, jumping for fun and thoroughly enjoying herself. A thrilled owner and a happy team too – great team effort.
Reve made a decent seasonal debut just tiring, as I feared he may do, in the softened ground but jumped well and pleased Leighton and his owners Ollie & Irene Ryan. It’s a long season and he has plenty of targets later on and is A1 this morning. Fairmount ran in the same race but he hasn’t shown the spark he did which saw him win well at Ffos Las and we have therefore made the decision to retire him. We’ll be looking for a lovely home for him.
Whilst we were at Worcester celebrating Chequered View’s win, our smallest members of the team, Freddie & his shetland pony Brewards Kerwen (Blackie) had the thrill of racing at Newmarket Racecourse, the first race before the professional card. The combination stayed on well all the way up the 2 1/2 furlong Newmarket straight to snatch 4th on the line and earn the chance to walk into that famous winners’ enclosure. A first run on the flat for them as they are used to hurdles but Blackie showed a good turn of foot and they absolutely loved it. What lucky children to have such opportunities as part of the Shetland Pony Grand National Team. Well done Freddie!