Wet and blustery this morning but lots of visitors in so it’s a good job we have a hardy lot here! Mike & Mella Wright were here to see the Morozov 3 year old who was one of the lovely group of 3 year olds that we bought at the Goffs Land Rover Sales in Ireland in June. They’d planned to come up on Tuesday to watch on the gallops on Wednesday but it had to be changed last minute and a mix up between Belinda & Mike (I’m blaming Belinda!) meant that we should have been out for supper last night instead of our planned night tonight! An honest mistake but a shame we didn’t make supper – 3rd time lucky next time! Always great to catch up with Mike & Mella.
Second lot Anna & Alan Varey from Batsford Stud were here to see Miss Antipova and kindly came across to see our new foals and give us some invaluable advice. We’ve not had foals here before and so we are so lucky to have Anna and Alan on our doorstep and I’m sure we will be picking their knowledgeable brains a lot over the coming months!
We are always keen to include friends and family of our team here and are arranging another morning on the gallops at the end of the month when they can all come and visit. However, Richard Walters, our Travelling Head Lad, had a visit from his mum, Julie Walters, this weekend so we invited her in to watch him on the gallops and it was great to meet her. She even overcame her fear of horses to join us in the field with our foals! It’s Richard’s birthday tomorrow so happy birthday to him.
A frustrating day yesterday as after we pulled Cut & Run out first thing we decided to take Big Nasty to Doncaster Racecourse and didn’t arrive until about an hour before his race. During our journey we were worrying a bit about the stories of the ground so I rang Will Kinsey ahead and we were going to make a decision when Harry Stock & I arrived. We decided to make him a non runner so we literally turned around and tried to beat the traffic (we failed!) only to hear 10 minutes later that the meeting had been abandoned. What a shame and so disappointing. We decided Big Nasty was too nice to risk on ground we weren’t happy with as he’s a huge horse and there is always another day.
Tomorrow we run Cut & Run at Leicester as we still had time to declare her on Friday after we’d made her a non runner for Doncaster. There are a couple of nice horses in her race but it could have been hotter, she’s in good form and will like the ground and should run a decent race. Harry Stock takes 5lbs off her back which all helps.