One runner today at Huntingdon with Herecomeshogan who runs in the Bumper at the end of the card under James Best. It’s his 3rd start and after a promising debut he was found to have a wind problem 2nd time out so he made a visit to Ben Brain to ascertain what surgery was needed and we hope Ben has done his magic! It’s a decent race but for Hogan we hope he realises he can breathe and we’d be thrilled if he ran into a place but it’s not all about today for him. Good luck Hogan!
Back at home and the dry spell continues – I’ve been rolling the grass and whilst we have been able to canter on it a lot this week, it’s getting dryer and we will soon need a drop of rain on it if we are to continue using it. Madness and Cheltenham’s dryer ground has meant small fields tomorrow but great racing nonetheless. A rare Cheltenham meeting without a Team Keighley runner! Hopefully we’ll have a few at their next meeting…!
Always lots going on at home and continually trying to improve facilities. More sand added to our loop gallop this week and, whilst many of our horses that have been so busy over the summer and autumn have their winter breaks out in the field, we have unusually had some spare time in the yard. Therefore the team have been busy painting stables and steam cleaning those empty stables as we know that come the late spring/early summer when these jobs usually happen, we plan to be busy again and with the team having holidays then too we are trying to be ahead of the game!
It’s so important to us here that all of our owners feel involved and enjoy being a part of Team Keighley no matter how much of a share in a horse they have with us from a hoof to a whole horse and we received some fabulous feedback yesterday that I’m so proud to share with you. It was sent to Paul Davis, who runs our Racing Club and all of our in-house Syndicates and we were copied in. Whilst I don’t think it’s fair to name the author of the email, the author has given me permission to share it with you all because “The more people who know how brilliant and rewarding it is being part of Team Keighley the better 🙂” … so here it is:
I was a member of one syndicate which closed very abruptly and during the 2 years of my involvement, I never received a single financial statement of any kind, nor did I ever see a penny of the winnings from a race the horse won. Another syndicate of which I am still just about a member is similar – no financial information in nearly 2 years, very little communication and no success on the track so far either.
It is very easy to be complacent about syndicate membership when they are as superbly and tightly run as all of the MKRP ones are. Never short of updates, pictures, videos and interaction with fellow owners.
That is the reason I wish to say a very heartfelt thank you to the entire MKRP team but especially you as the figurehead from the organisational point of view.
It’s fabulous to be recognised as doing the job properly and we thank Paul Davis and also Jon & Jack Hughes, who Paul admits learning so much regarding running syndicates from, for all the relentless hard work they’ve put into helping set up and run our syndicates here.
Well done to our Head Girl Jasmin who has learnt today that she has passed her Level 3 Diploma in Work Based Racehorse Care and Management (Exercise Riding) after working so hard towards it. Well done Jas, much deserved.