Absolutely heartbreaking news filtered through last night that Jack De Bromhead, son of top Irish Trainer Henry, had been killed pony racing in Ireland aged just 13 years old. I cannot begin to think what they are all going through. Racing is such a big family in times like these and I know it’s touched us all, even those of us who didn’t know Jack. What a huge loss to our sport too as he looked to have such a bright future. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.
Windy Cove ran another huge race at Sedgefield on Thursday and despite running a blinder she finished 2nd. She’s so tough and takes her racing so well though and will no doubt be out again soon.
Belinda, Paul Davis & Tilly meanwhile were at Windsor Racecourse as part of their Syndicates Day – an initiative by Great British Racing. There were lots of other racing clubs and syndicates there and it was a beautiful evening apparently which they all thoroughly enjoyed. A different night of racing as it was one of the Racing League nights which is very different but if we had some horses able to run for £50,000 1st prize we would definitely be part of it!
Burghley Horse Trials this weekend and we were so proud of Kitty King who performed an amazing dressage test to be overnight leader going into Cross Country day. A fabulously superb ride across country but just one mistake from her horse Vendredi Biats (Froggy) saw him break a frangible pin (designed to break on heavy impact and hopefully stop nasty falls). It cost them 11 penalty points and although she continued to deliver for the rest of the round it was enough to put them down into 6th place overnight. He passed today’s ‘Trot Up’ in good style and despite a pole down in the Show Jumping they retained 6th place and should be hugely proud of themselves. Kitty is so dedicated and deserves all the success she gets.
Mr Mafia, owned by Kitty’s father Peter, appeared on ITV Racing’s Home Schooling feature on Saturday – footage from when he visited Newlands Care Home recently.
No runners this weekend so a chance to watch the boys play football, their first games of the season. Harry played yesterday for his Broadway U13 Team and I got there in time to see him score the first goal of the match. They stayed on top to win 3-0. Today Freddie played for his Northleach U15s Team against a team that beat them 7-1 last season in a cup game. It was their first league game of the season and it was a brilliant game – nailbiting stuff! They played really well and won 4-3.
Yesterday 14 year old Claudia Groves left Dorset early enough to make 1st lot where she rode Bluethorn Boy up the gallops before racing her Shetland Pony Merrylegs in the Shetland Pony Grand National at Moreton Show and Belinda & Freddie went to cheer them along. They won their heat in the morning and went on to finish 4th in the Final and exactly the same in the afternoon. Well done to them both. No doubt they all slept well last night!