This morning we had a visit from Richard Perham, Senior Jockey Coach at the British Racing School. He brought his motorised mechanical horse with him and, after watching and filming the team on our carpet loop gallop then our straight gallop he gave them all tuition on the mechanical horse and they had a chance to watch themselves on film too. It was an invaluable session for them all – if only to realise how many things they are already getting right (we pride ourselves on the very good level of riding we already have in our team here). They hopefully all took something away to work on though and it is a brilliant free initiative funded by the British Racing School and we are very grateful for him taking the time to visit us.
James Richardson collected Viking Mistress late morning and is taking her off to stud. She’s been a challenge to keep sound as her body wasn’t anywhere near as tough as her mind so we have made the decision to retire her. She’s been a fantastic flag bearer for our Martin Keighley Racing Club and her two back to back wins last summer under Champion Jockey Richard Johnson will live long in the memory of plenty of our Club Members I’m sure. We cannot wait to hopefully train her offspring as she’s a good looking mare and they only need to have half the will to win that she did and they will be fine.
One runner today at Leicester – Sporty Yankee goes in the last, a competitive Handicap Hurdle over 2 miles and Harry Stock rides. He put in a much improved performance last time out, also at Leicester, and seems in good form so I wouldn’t be surprised if he ran into a place at a big price.