Apologies for the lack of blog for the last few days … my secretary (& typist!) has had her hands full with the boys on half term but is now back in the office with them back at school! The boys have had a fabulous week full of football and riding – no surprise there!
Freddie was one of the fortunate Pony Racing Authority Jockeys who attended a Pony Racing Youth Development Day, “Resilience: Striding towards Success’ on Friday at Oaksey House in Lambourn run by the Pony Racing Authority (PRA). The PRA have been the lucky beneficiary of grant from Tiggy’s Trust and the day was designed to help PRA jockeys understand what lies ahead and help them develop plans to cope with all that life as a sportsperson – amateur or professional – has to throw at them. The day also included two sessions for parents in the morning; one on social media and one on how to support our children as they move into working full time in the industry and to help them prepare for whatever life throws at them. It sounds as if it was a fabulous day and both of them took a lot away from it.
Before then Freddie rode work for Nicky Henderson 1st lot and thoroughly enjoyed that opportunity and has been invited back whenever he has time which I’m sure he’ll take them up on that. I know I’ve said it before but racing is such a fabulous industry and there are so many opportunities – you often only need to be brave enough to ask. I also lose Freddie to Dan Skelton’s yard often on Saturday mornings but he absolutely loves going there too and is learning so much as well.
Three runners at Hereford today, a track I like a lot as they always do a great job. Our first runner is in the Cazoo NH Maiden Hurdle when Kalibrate makes his hurdling debut under James Best. He’s a horse that we have had since he was a foal and he has always reminded me of Champion Court and showed us so much at home – sadly he’s not yet transferred that to the course but we are hoping he shows us much more now he’s going over hurdles. He’s a big horse so it may just be that he’s needed more time.
Our 2nd runner is Samtara (James Best) for Roger & Yvonne Allsop and is a horse that is long overdue his first win having finished 2nd or 3rd in 8 of his 16 runs to date including a short head 2nd at Hereford over hurdles. He makes his second start over fences after a summer holiday and we hope he’ll go well again today.
Finally Ben Buie returns after a break and is a course and distance winner having delighted his syndicate here nearly 12 months ago. He’s in great form and if he’s spot on after his holiday and there are no umbrellas about (he hates umbrellas!) then he should go close again. He has a very enthusiastic syndicate of owners so they will be very vocal if he’s in with a chance late on. Sam Twiston-Davies, who gets on so well with him, rides.
Good luck to all.