Belinda and I went up to North Yorkshire on Friday evening to celebrate Brian Hughes winning last year’s Jockeys Championship and we had a thoroughly enjoyable evening making up for the nearly 5 1/2 hours it took us to get there! That will teach us a lesson for doing extra jobs in the yard/on the computer and leaving 2 hours later than planned! A brilliant party and huge congratulations to Brian. On the way home we called in on my parents in West Yorkshire as we’ve not seen them for a while due to my mother having a knee replacement so it was great to see them.
Ben Buie ran well yesterday at Stratford under Brian Hughes to finish a fast finishing 3rd. He was nicely placed throughout most of the race however dropped away having been taken on for 2nd place and we feared that was his race over. It wasn’t and he picked up well and was flying over the line. The heat didn’t seem to affect him at all and there was plenty of water on hand for my team to cool him down afterwards.
We are off to Newton Abbot today with Windy Cove who is partnered by James Bowen, brother of regular partner Sean who has chosen to ride another horse in the race so James will no doubt be trying to ensure he has made the wrong decision! She’s in good form and ran a blinder recently on the flat and I think the track will suit her.
Congratulations to our “Iron Woman” Ernesta Verberg who ran a marathon in the heat near Thirsk yesterday with the minimum of fuss and looked remarkably fresh and sound last night when she returned! Not quite my idea of fun!
We sadly said goodbye to Vicki last week and we enjoyed an evening at The Plough at Ford with her on Saturday night. Vicki was a valuable member of our team and will be missed.
Today Belinda and I celebrate our 24th Wedding Anniversary … big one next year! I know we don’t look old enough!! She assures me she was a child bride!!