Work morning this morning and we worked Another Day Out, Mikimoto, Pinnacle Peak, Kalibrate, Brianna Rose, Ballyvango, Wide To West, Massima Bella, Back on the Lash, Bobbi’s Beauty, Witness Protection, Release The Kraken, Rolling Cloud, Redbridge Rambler, Samtara, Zarhanya, A Wish Away and She Has Notions. Kauto Castillo, Osterberg, Hot Goddess, Myfanwy’s Magic and Lost In The Mist did swinging canters and all the rest cantered.
Warren Marston was in for three lots, as he regularly is, and thanks to Racing Club Member David Vickers on Twitter/X who alerted us to the fact that it’s 14 years to the day that Warren won over hurdles on Andrew & Louise Jones’ lovely chestnut gelding, Benbane Head, and provided us with our first ever Cheltenham winner. He was Giant’s Causeway’s first Cheltenham winner too and Benbane Head went on to win again at Cheltenham four years later over fences. Great memories.
We have two runners at Hereford’s season opener and we are hoping to give syndicate member Stuart White a birthday winner – that’s the fairytale result anyway – when Ben Buie (Sean Bowen) tries to follow up on his recent Warwick success. He seems in good form and, despite his incredible race record, isn’t one to trust entirely but has winning form at Hereford as that was the scene of his first ever win on his first ever race for this enthusiastic syndicate.
We also run Herecomeshogan for The Cotswold Lockdowners under our conditional jockey Harry Atkins who claims a valuable 10lbs and this combination won at Exeter in October last year when Harry was still in the amateur ranks. He ran well for a long way at Worcester over fences last time but reverts to hurdles on his preferred quicker surface and should put up another solid performance.
Recent runners have run decent races without troubling the judge. Zestful has been dropped 2lbs from the Handicapper today for her 4th place at Chepstow on Saturday. She was giving lumps of weight away, probably just needed the run plus Sean reported she didn’t really enjoy the gluey ground. She’ll come on lots for that and is still an exciting prospect. Enforcement was always going to need the run but jumped for fun at Ffos Las and was outpaced over the minimum trip but it was a good pipe opener for him. He’ll step back up in trip and should give our Racing Club plenty of fun over the winter especially if he continues to jump like he did on Sunday! Ten Past Midnight travelled & jumped well but struggled to get home over 3 miles on the tacky ground. We may revert to fences with him but he’ll have to please me in his schooling sessions beforehand and if he tackles 3 miles again it will be on a better surface.
We are looking forward to heading to Newmarket Sales next Monday and Tuesday with the aim to add to the Flat string we plan for next summer with both syndicate horses and a few for sole owners too. You are very welcome to join us if it is of interest to you so do give me a call (07767472547) or email (keighleyracing@btinternet.com) and come and join the fun! We have Bloodstock agent Charlie Dee of Kern Lillingston trawling through the catalogue of 1750 horses so plenty to go at! We also have a WhatsApp Group dedicated to our Flat Syndicates so again do get in touch if you’d like to be added to that and hear the plans as soon as we know them!
Paul Davis, who runs our syndicates for us (& keeps a close eye on the finances too!) is helping with co-ordinating the Flat Syndicates and will be with us in Newmarket as well as Nigel McAllen. Nigel is an owner here of bumper winner Prairie Diamond and has shares in more horses than he’d probably like to stop and count! Nigel is newly retired and we are aiming to fill as much of his time up as we’ve successfully achieved with Paul Davis and he’s kindly agreed to help Paul with the running of our syndicates.
If you haven’t already seen our Horses in Training Brochure, do click HERE to have a read through it. Inevitably new horses have arrived since it went to print but it gives you a really good insight into our team here.