Work morning yesterday and great to have Tom Queally in who has recently changed his Jockey Licence from flat to dual and rode a winner in Ireland over hurdles on Boxing Day. He actually also has a 100% strike rate for us over hurdles winning impressively on both Solstice Star and Bobble Emerald in the Flat Jockey Hurdles race they run annually at Lingfield. I don’t think he saw another rival on both occasions and both horses went on and won at Cheltenham afterwards! We look forward to using Tom over the coming season and beyond. He rode our bumper horse Black Panther who is due to debut later this month.
Sky Sports Racing’s Hayley Moore was also in to ride out and she rode Zara Tindall’s homebred mare ‘Run A Rig’ and joked that it wasn’t only Ryan in the family that rode for the Royal Family! She loved the facilities here and we hope she may come and ride out again in the future – she certainly has the style of her brothers! No surprise that the boys wanted to stay and watch 1st lot and were a tiny bit late for school!
Warren Marston was in too and we also worked Reve, Brillare Momento, Black Prince, Be Thankful, Dreamsundermyfeet, Cotswold Prince, Eclat Des Mottes and City Never Sleeps up the grass. These horses did a swinging canter up the grass: Mozzaro, Ten Past Midnight, Back on the Lash, Debden Bank, Samtara, Enforcement, Kazontherazz and Sarasota Star. The rest cantered.
Today we have two runners at Ludlow, both mares. Lucky Circle runs in the red hot juvenile hurdle and will hopefully enjoy the ground far more than the bottomless ground she hated at Fontwell on Boxing Day. She looks a picture in her coat but she will undoubtedly find life easier when she’s against her own grade in handicaps.
Capricia runs in the second division of the mares’ bumper which ends the card and needs to put a very disappointing run last time well behind her where she hated the heavy ground at Ffos Las and we also don’t think she was 100% that day either. She ran well at Ludlow on her debut finishing 3rd in a race that has worked out well so a reproduction of that form will see her well in the mix.