A long way to Ayr on Monday – especially for myself and James Best who did it in a day! The horses travelled up on Sunday and had a good night and were well looked after by Richard & Mick who, in turn, were well looked after by the team at Ayr too so thanks to them.
Obviously when you travel so far you hope for a winner and whilst both my horses returned at 8-1 and 11-1 respectively, we did fancy them to run well and that they did. Witness Protection tried to make all under Richard Johnson and ran an absolute blinder and looked to have sealed the race jumping the last. However, it’s a long run in and he was cruelly denied in the shadows of the post. A bit galling but a great run nevertheless and an exciting horse for the Foxtrot Racing Team to have.
Big Nasty has always been a horse we liked a lot and, being so big, we were keen to go chasing sooner rather than later so his debut over fences was also his handicap debut. James Best gave him a lovely ride and managed to keep the partnership together during his sole mistake thankfully but apart from that he absolutely jumped for fun and, whilst he looked like he was dropping away up the straight, he battled back to finish 2nd. The Peel Racing Syndicate were rightly thrilled with his run as were we and he is such an exciting horse to have in the yard.
Off flat racing today at Nottingham where Be Thankful runs for our Martin Keighley Racing Club under our Amateur Paddy Berkins. She is a lovely big mare and I won’t be surprised if she ran into a place at a decent price.
Tonight is one of the fundraising evenings that Belinda has organised ahead of Freddie racing his pony in the Shetland Pony Grand National at Olympia in December. They are raising money for The Bob Champion Cancer Trust and, this season, Freddie has already raised nearly £2000. Tonight’s event is a Bingo Night at The Coach & Horses in Longborough and eyes down at 8pm. Food is available and you will get 5 games of Bingo for £10 with great prizes and awesome raffle prizes too. Do support if you can otherwise Freddie would appreciate any sponsorship through is Just Giving site HERE.