Rain and more rain! We’ve had enough of it now but another band coming through tonight although next week looks a bit brighter hopefully! With just 5 to come out of the Aintree Grand National at the latest confirmation stage earlier in the week, it’s looking a bit more hopeful that Back On The Lash will get into the race although, obviously, we won’t run him at Aintree if it’s soft. However, I’m now in the process of making some Grand National style fences as he will need to school over them just in case!
Yesterday it was lovely to see Marcella Bayliss, Ben Hughes and Danny Wright who came to watch Lantic Bay on the gallops and were thrilled with how he is coming along. We then had lunch at The Hollow Bottom in Guiting Power which was delicious.
A busy day as yesterday evening Belinda & Paul Davis joined me at Ben Pauling’s Cotswold Club where Mark Spincer, Rebecca Morgan and their Arena Leisure Team hosted an evening for local Trainers and secretaries. It was very informative and great to hear all of their ideas – ARC are keen to work together with us all and help with syndicates especially. They are rolling out syndicate lounges across all 16 of their racecourses and also have a very good Owner Liason Team who are on hand to help with us with anything we need help with. They are making so much effort and it was a good evening.
Harry Atkins turned 18 on Tuesday so Happy Birthday to him. Unfortunately he fell foul of the new whip rules on Samtara a week ago when he was 4th at Warwick (before going on to win when they combined again 48 hours later at Hereford) so not a great birthday present was finding out he has been banned for 8 days. He’ll not forget to count again..!
