The first day of Advent and two very excited boys in the house, as I’m sure there are everywhere! Luckily I don’t get involved in much of the Christmas organisation and magically it just seems to all happen! We are off for our annual Christmas Trip to the pantomime in Cheltenham at The Everyman later today. It features Tweedy the Clown who is absolutely brilliant and even I enjoy it! It was nearly not quite a full family trip though as if Leicester was on then I’d have been there so for once the family are thanking the awful weather!
We’ve not had many runners because of the ground over the last few days as most of ours prefer better ground. Miss Antipova was 3rd at Ffos Las earlier in the week on heavy ground, jumping well and unlucky not to be 2nd behind a very easy winner. Capricia didn’t run at all as we were expecting and I’m hopeful we can put a line through that run and totally forget it. She should have run a lot better than that even though the ground was heavy. She seems fine but, as always, we’ll monitor her and see if anything comes to light.
Michael Chitty was in on Friday to watch the very well named Ten Past Midnight on the gallops. He was born at that time at Batsford Stud and is a nice young horse who isn’t far off a run. Michael generously sponsored Freddie for his the Shetland Pony Grand National at Olympia in just two weeks time. Freddie & Blackie were out on the gallops even earlier than 1st lot but popped in to see Michael on their way back to their stable as Michael’s wife and daughter will be cheering them on at Olympia too.
Some great racing yesterday at Newbury and well done to Kieran Ryan who is part of the Making Bacon Partnership who own De Rasher Counter who won the Ladbrokes Trophy in great style under young Ben Jones. It’s such a small world as Ben’s older sister Hannah did very well on Freddie’s old racing pony ‘Bubbles’ and reportedly didn’t let Ben sit on him as she didn’t think he was good enough! He’s certainly making a name for himself at the moment as well as many pony racing graduates are too – such a fantastic initiative which undoubtedly is helping us nurture talent from an earlier age.
Off to the Panto….Oh yes we are!