A touch of frost this morning but it didn’t get in the ground so we were still able to school second lot on the grass. Andrew Tinkler was in and we schooled a few and Richard East was here to watch Solstice Star school over hurdles. We also schooled Ocean Eleven, Ballymountain Boy, Thady Quil and Viking Mistress.
Ex-jockey turned Jockey Coach and Mentor Phillip Robinson was in to watch Warren Marston in his role as Jockey Coach and he was helping Kieran, who works for us, and was schooling Champion Court over hurdles. It’s a great iniative and Warren is very good at it but it’s fantastic that a close eye is being kept on the whole process and I’m sure so many people get such a lot out of it – not only the young jockeys but the ex jockeys no doubt enjoy giving something back to the game. Their knowledge is invaluable. It wasn’t around in my day but I was fortunate to have The Duke as a ‘coach’ and he missed nothing although we’d not get away with the rollockings he gave these days! Did us now harm though!
Belinda and I were lucky enough to learn from jockeys like Richard Dunwoody who was Stable Jockey for the Duke for quite some time and so generous with his advice. Richard still keeps in touch and is soon off to do another fantastic fundraising mission – walking 2000 miles across Japan in aid of Sarcoma UK. read more about why he’s doing it.