A quieter Saturday morning than usual as no owners in first lot. The horses first lot went around the village and just had one canter – most worked yesterday. Quiet in our house as Freddie & Harry had a sleepover at Jackdaws Castle so Guy & Sophie Upton’s sleep loss was our sleep gain as we had no alarm clock asking us if it was time to get up before 5 which is normal!
After second lot Richard East and Lou called in to see us and have a catch up ahead of Solstice Star’s seasonal debut tomorrow at Uttoxeter. David Bishop also called in to see us and collect his trophy from Bobble Emerald’s win at Southwell earlier in the week. David was counting up the winners we have trained for him…Ponchatrain joined us and won four times including, not only giving Tom Bellamy his racecourse debut, but then later giving him his first rules winner, Havingotascoobydo won five and was unlucky to retire early having sustained a career ending injury. Luckily he has retired with Helen Diment who rode him every day and adored him. Bobble Emerald is his third horse here and he has already won five races…David pointed out that none of the horses cost a fortune, we found the last two for him, and all had their share of problems but with patient owners and the great team we have here, everything is possible.
Our day finished with a pub catch up with Chairman Jon and wife Jack Hughes, two shattered boys (albeit still excited that a photo of Harry’s JP coloured onesie made Racing Post’s tweet of the day) and all delighted that not only did their favourite team, Cheltenham Town Football Club, win today in a local derby against Swindon Town, but their favourite player, Danny Wright scored the winning goal in the final minute of injury time – perfect. Had they not been so tired from a crazy sleepover we’d no doubt have been there.