I’m really not sure where the days go but these last few days have flown by. Happy New Year to you all. A fabulous 2022 behind us and we look forward to celebrating lots of winners and good times hopefully with you all in 2023.
Our final runner of the year didn’t go to plan with Miladygrace (Rex Dingle) crashing out at the fourth fence at Warwick on New Year’s Eve. Thankfully both horse and rider are fine which is always the main thing. There will be other times for her.
We had a quiet New Year’s Eve with no partying but my parents came down to stay after having to cancel over Christmas as I didn’t want them to catch the awful cold that I’d been suffering with. Antibiotics had eventually done the trick and I’m feeling much better. Work obviously never stops when you are self employed and I’m sure that didn’t help me get over it quicker but I’m much better now! It was lovely to see my parents as we’ve not been together since Found On winning at Cheltenham in October and we had a delicious meal and an early night – so rock n roll!
We’d planned to have two runners at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day but the ground went too soft for Found On over that trip and I’m so pleased we didn’t run her as it looked very tough. Poor Ollie & Irene Ryan sounded poorly when I spoke to them on Saturday so hope they are both feeling better. She has a few options coming up and is in great form.
Andrew & Louise Jones’ unbeaten new recruit, Shinji, was a non-runner in the bumper as I wasn’t 100% happy with this blood results and to win at Cheltenham you need to be spot on. There is no rush with him but he’ll be out soon.
We therefore had a relaxing day at our local course and were fortunate enough to be invited to The Royal Box for the day which was fun. Harry stayed at home with my parents but Freddie came racing and we had a fabulous day with lots of owners and friends and some really good racing. The perfect place to see in the New Year.
As with all the racecourses I’ve been to over Christmas, Cheltenham was absolutely packed and I think I’m right in saying that Ed Chamberlin said it was the 10th busiest raceday in 12 months – and it looked it! Other courses have been packed too – Market Rasen on Boxing Day, Leicester the following day and Warwick on New Year’s Eve – this has to be good for racing and let’s hope we have persuaded lots of younger members of the crowd how much fun there is to be had enjoying a day at the races.
Matthew Baker was in over Christmas, as was David Parry and David Maughan was in yesterday to watch his horses on the gallops. It feels as if the rest of the world is back to normal today – we’ve obviously been working all the way through but the rest of the world seem to now be also back to work – no back to work blues for us! The boys go back to school tomorrow and I’ll miss having them around and will be a work rider down too!
Wishing us all a healthy and happy New Year.