After a productive schooling morning yesterday the rest of the day was more challenging. I managed to have a bump in the car on the way to Fontwell (all ok, thankfully) and I arrived having heard from the vet on the way that they were concerned about a date from 2012 in the passport of our bumper horse and it was being referred to the Stewards.
Thankfully they were happy it was a genuine mistake where a 3 was changed to a 2 although it will now need our vets to confirm that and we’ll send it off to the BHA. Our practice have vaccinated her all her life so that makes life easier – they possibly should have known that any tiny mistake needs signing off but we’ll be double checking ourselves even more that we already do too!
Lord Condi was making his debut over hurdles and unfortunately was jumped into or hampered at most of his hurdles by a rival that didn’t seem able to get out of his way and visa versa. Poor Condi was cannoned into badly twice so he did well to finish 3rd and to only lose one front shoe. He seems A1 this morning and we’ll get plenty of schooling into him before he runs again to ensure he’s not lost any confidence.
Miss Antipova was making her racecourse debut and was well behaved in the preliminaries, despite getting worked up in the lorry on the way, then surprised us by veering virtually off the course on the top bend during the first circuit as she’s never done anything like that at home. Harry Stock did a great job on her and didn’t panic or rush her, ensured she didn’t do it again the next time around and somehow they managed to finish not too far behind the leaders in 5th. She certainly must have an engine as she must have given away far more lengths than she was beaten!
No runners today but we look likely to have a few runners tomorrow and Wednesday.