Back On The Lash won his 3rd race of the season yesterday – his 7th race of his career from 16 races and his 3rd out of 5 chase starts – not a bad record! Thanks to Nigel Kirby, once again, for the photo:
Given a lovely confident ride from Sean Bowen, dropped back into a smaller field after not enjoying himself last time out in the bet365 Summer Cup, he didn’t put a foot wrong, jumping for fun and winning by 1 1/4 lengths in game fashion. The win was made even more impressive as he was giving half a stone to the 2nd horse and a stone to the 3rd horse. Well done to owner Mark Boothright and to Beth, who looks after him and rides him out every day. Beth is riding in a charity race at the end of September at Warwick and would love any support you could give her. Please sponsor her if you can HERE.
Miss Antipova ran an absolute blinder and, as jockey James Best said, did everything but win – jumping for fun, not missing a beat but getting passed up the run-in after making all the running to finish 2nd. The Racing Post reported “another solid effort in defeat and she deserves a change of fortune” – she certainly does. Owners Alan & Anna Varey were rightly very pleased with their mare but goodness me how I want to train them a winner!
Later on Be Thankful ran for our Racing Club and was in good form at home but disappointed yesterday. She’s returned in season and, despite having lots of ability, is difficult to catch just right. Her time will come though I’m sure as she’s a lovely big strong mare.
I missed watching Freddie on his shetland pony Blackie on day 3 of The Game Fair at Ragley Hall and said I bet it’s the day he manages to ride his first Shetland Pony Grand National Final winner…it was and I missed it, which was a shame, but delighted for him as he was buzzing after winning his heat too. I joked that it meant we’d had an across the card treble! Well done Freddie & Blackie. 
Fabulous on Saturday to see George Thornton, Tracey and Ava who came to bring Dreamsundermyfeet lots of carrots and also to kindly and generously bring us a framed photo of Dreamer, Pinnacle Peak and Debden Bank – our treble of trebles.
We also had a visit on Saturday from Steve Thomasson and Jason & Lisa Richards to watch Fiddledi Dee do a piece of fastwork under Harry Stock. Paul Davis also here to look after them and watch him too and, after he took longer than I was happy with to recover, it was decided to postpone his first run which originally was penciled in for this week. Lovely to see them and always good to show owners first hand the thought process behind planning runs etc. – the horses always tell us when they are ready and you can’t rush them.
This morning Alan Stickley was here to watch Mozzaro and Duke of Luckley put through their paces. Always entertaining to see Alan and today was no different. He went off back to London with some Luckley eggs – enjoy Alan!