Absolutely thrilled to win with Pinnacle Peak for Richard Lloyd & Mark Boothright yesterday at Worcester under another very good ride from Adam Wedge. Pinnacle was tough and made most of the running and was so tough when headed after the last to eventually win a bit cosily and Adam struggled to pull him up which is always a good sign! Richard joined Mark in ownership after he’d won his 3rd race in a row and he then had a setback and time off followed by a few uninspiring runs so it was fabulous to reward both his and Mark’s patience with the horse and a pat on the back for the team to get him ready after 167 days off the track.
We also ran Dreamsundermyfeet who ran a solid race and will undoubtedly come on for the run and Midladygrace who jumped really well but found the softer ground in the straight against her. A lovely day in the sunshine at Worcester with a super group of owners.
We’ve been busy over the past week or so both in the yard and doing a few things before the boys go back to school. We had a brilliant Racing Club Picnic back at Worcester last Tuesday evening where masses of fun was had by all despite the rain trying to ruin things! Our fabulous Racing Club has fun wherever we go so even though plenty of the picnic was sodden, our gazebo’s sheltered most of us and there was plenty of fun and laughter. Miss Antipova ran a solid race in the race we sponsored and once again walked into the winners’ enclosure, this time in 4th place. She’ll get her day one day we hope!
We also hosted a picnic with about 40 members of the Foxtrot Racing Team descending on us last Friday evening in glorious sunshine, which Belinda & Dan Abraham had booked (!), where they watched Witness Protection & Rolling Clouds cantering on our loop gallop as they enjoyed their picnics! Thanks to Ernie and Oli for giving up their evenings to ride out and to Ernie who also took people in the buggy to see Pay The Woman enjoying the end of her summer holidays. I put plenty of food on the BBQ which seemed to go down well too and a good night was had by all.
Mr Mafia is A1 after pulling up at Newton Abbot on Saturday. We had to pull him out when the rain poured down at Worcester the Tuesday before and although he was back on his preferred quick ground, the reduced trip of 2m 5f is just too sharp for him these days and he couldn’t go the pace. Sean knows him so well and pulled him up when his chance was gone. Annoyingly there aren’t many races around for him at the moment which is frustrating – I’ll continue to look for something over 3 miles or further for him and, with the hot forecast, he’ll surely still have his ground if I can find such a race in a few weeks time. No entries this week as the hot weather will mean that the ground is unsuitable for the rest of the team.
We had a fabulous supper with Jon & Jack Hughes & Paul Davis on Saturday night at The Plough. Jon & Jack are moving to Cheshire this week after many years in the Cotswolds and it was a really enjoyable evening and we wish them well with the move.
Last week we had a brilliant morning at Alan King’s Barbury Castle stables last week too where Alan generously shared his unbelievable knowledge on training Flat horses ahead of our new venture which we are planning to have a handful of flat runners next summer. Freddie was lucky enough to ride out 3 super horses too and that was the fifth yard he’s ridden out for this summer (in addition to Paul Nicholl’s, Gordon Elliott, Dan Skelton and James Fanshawe) so he’s gained loads more experience. A delicious breakfast thanks to Rachel and then a quick look around Jamie Magee’s pre-training yard before he joined Alan, Rachel and us for a really fun lunch at La Strada – what a wonderful local for them!