Lots of the team had a fun day at Andoversford yesterday where Harry Stock, Alfie Jordan and Ash Hark made up the team for the Donkey Chariot racing kindly sponsored by R E Resource Group who are headed by Richard East and James Gibbs, owners of Solstice Star and also in the Forecast Syndicate. Last year Issy Mangan was our Camel Champion so we had something to live up to! Harry got us off to a great start winning his heat (after Belinda had quizzed them all to suss out the fastest donkey!) then Ash was handicapped with the slowest donkey but after the front three piled up, he nearly came through to win but his donkey needed blinkers and didn’t go through with it’s effort to finish 3rd! Back on our beloved fast donkey (Alfie wasn’t getting off it!) and Alfie delivered our final win even though he did box in the Grahame McPherson contender and, had he objected, we’d have definitely lost it in the Stewards’ room! Such a fun event and well done to the boys involved!
A great day of racing and good to catch up with so many people. Max Comley, who rides out for us regularly, was 4th and Alfie Jordan, fresh from his donkey win, was 3rd. Freddie was a n/r in the Pony Race after a busy week for Bubbles but he’d not have troubled the leaders as it was fast and furious and so many children having a wonderful time. Never one to miss an opportunity – after bumping into our neighbour and TV star Adam Henson, Freddie took the opportunity to ask him a question for his #FreddieAsks series on social media and Adam was predictably fantastic.
Overcast here again today and no sign of the ground drying for the moment – we’ve had no runners yet in April but have more than ever ready to run at this stage of the year. Frustrating as so many Trainers are no doubt in the same situation and therefore the races will quite possibly be oversubscribed but we’ll see. We won’t have any at Aintree later this week but should be well represented at Cheltenham next week.