The snow and hard frost has made life harder for the team so huge thanks once again to them for their hard work. Having to defrost cars and negotiate icy roads makes the days longer too but it is much appreciated.
We nearly had a runner this week…poor Paddy drove Zestful to Chelmsford on Thursday evening to run on the all weather. Paul Davis, who runs her syndicate, had found this opportunity for her to blow the cobwebs away before she starts her hurdling career. It was great prize money and with just 5 declared she was assured £1200 to the 5th and, if she had managed to beat one home, that doubled so worth taking the chance.
However, we’d not banked on the all weather surface not being all weather and the writing was on the wall whilst the runners for the 1st race were still in the Paddock, delayed, and the jockeys and officials were inspecting the course. The stalls had frozen but that could have been overcome with a flag start…. the surface, however, wasn’t deemed fit so they couldn’t take any chances. What a shame especially after it took Paddy 4 hours to get there. I do wonder if there should be some sort of cut off for racecourses to be either off or on – she’s home safe and sound but it ended up costing her syndicate instead of making them some money.
Earlier in the week Neil LLoyd from our sponsors FBC Manby Bowdler and Shanice Pearson met with myself, Belinda and Paul Davis for a end of year catch up and a Christmas lunch. We are so grateful to them for their support of our yard and really enjoy working with them. Neil is an owner in Kalibrate and he will run in Neil’s colours this season – Neil brought his new colours in and modelled them on the mechanical horse – and he looked pretty tidy too!
With no racing at all today I’m sure there are some that are off Christmas Shopping – far too early for me to start but thankfully it’s not me that does the majority of it anyway! I think we’ll be in front of the wood burner for the afternoon! Keep warm everyone.