Well the end of one season and the beginning of another already! Thank you to all the team here, our wonderful owners and all the support team that help keep our fabulous horses in top shape. We finished with 25 winners and 50% of our horses walked into the Winners’ Enclosure by finishing in the top 4. It was a hard task following our previous record breaking season as a lot of the horses had inevitably gone up in the handicap but we have an exciting number of young horses coming through and the most exciting bunch we have had for a long time. Found On won 4 races and Back On The Lash, with his Cheltenham Cross Country win on Festival Trials Day, was our biggest money earner. The horses earned nearly £250,000 for their owners.
The 2023/2024 season started just 48 hours later and, although our first two runners, Wide To West and Come On Me Babby, failed to trouble the judge at Warwick, both needing softer ground, we did get our first unofficial winner of the season. Freddie and his 5 year old 148cm pony Miss Millfield won their fourth race of 2023 but their first Racecourse Series Race which is the pinnacle of Pony Racing so a very proud day for us all. They are both learning all the time and thoroughly enjoying themselves in the process.
We head to Uttoxeter tomorrow with four runners. Genovese, Redbridge Rambler and Spanish Present, all partnered by Sean Bowen and Witness Protection who will be partnered by Brian Hughes standing in for usual partner James Best, who gets on so well with him, as he is banned. I’ll have a good walk around before they run and hopefully they’ll all run well.
On Sunday we are having a family outing at Kingston Blount as Belinda runs Pattern Cutter for HRH The Princess Royal in a Maiden Point to Point there. He ran well on his debut at Paxford and will hopefully build on that and should appreciate the better ground.