Martin’s Blog 19th December

No runners today but plenty of visitors throughout the morning. Tilly Jarrett and Paul Davis were here 1st lot to see last Sunday’s winner Debden Bank and the rest of the team.

Warren Marston, Lilly Pinchin Fern O’Brien & mum Jelly were all in and we worked Witness Protection, Reve, Pinnacle Peak, Back on the Lash, Solstice Star, Samtara, Big Nasty, Dreamsundermyfeet, Kazontherazz and Be Thankful. All the rest cantered.

Second Lot we welcomed Amy Wood to the yard to meet “Hogan” our Sageburg 3 year old whom her partner Jack Rogers, has bought her a share in for an early Christmas present joining him as an owner too. What a great present – do get in touch if you’d like to do similar and we will do our best to get you your Certificate and Scarf before Christmas.

We’ve welcomed quite a few visitors this week which is a lovely change and something we are able to do very easily taking into consideration social distancing with most of the yard areas obviously outdoors. The team are our main concern but we manage things very safely so do get in touch if you’d like to visit too. Matthew Baker was here yesterday to see his horses and watch Capricia, who he has a share in, work with Found On and they both pleased me.

Earlier in the week it was lovely to see Roger and Rosemary Sollis who are also in Debden Bank who isn’t the most cuddly of horses but seems to secretly enjoy being the centre of attention following his impressive Southwell win last Sunday! We also welcomed Debbie Matthews of Go Racing Green to the yard with her daughter, friend and Heidi Cross too. They were lucky enough to watch some of the horses schooling over fences and hurdles and it was great to catch up with them. It will be even better when we can welcome larger groups back to the yard ….sometime soon we hope.

City Never Sleeps ran another huge race yesterday to finish 3rd over fences at Uttoxeter under James Best. He was only just run out of 2nd behind a run away winner but he was tackling 3 miles for the first time in horrendous ground. James thinks that we can drop him back to 2 1/2 miles in that ground ideally but as he commented afterwards, he doesn’t know how to run a bad race. He’s a fabulous horse for our Racing Club.

The day before Mozzaro and Enforcement ran at Hereford in equally tough conditions. It had to survive an inspection before racing went ahead. Mozzaro all but boiled over in the preliminaries and jumped quite green, as we suspected he may do, on his hurdling debut. He is a horse for the future and will, I’m sure, be worth the time and patience we are having to give him. Enforcement was running wrong at the weights but needed a run and I was keen to give Kai Lenihan a ride too as he’s been in here riding out regularly. He relished conditions and was running a big race for his long price before his wind caught him out. He’ll have his palate cauterised next week and will hopefully find things easier afterwards. He’s another who is a fun horse for our Racing Club and will surely be back winning again soon. Racing Club Memberships are also available for Christmas and give so much fun for £500 a year or £42 a month. Those in our Club have so much fun and many friendships are made. Get in touch to find out more.

The boys have broken up from school and Freddie now has an extra week at home as he goes back a week later than Harry but does have to do online schooling for that week – I wonder how well that will go! Belinda won’t miss the break from the school run that’s for sure!

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