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News Archive - October 2008
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Winter arrives
28th October 2008
The colder weather arrived with a bang this morning with our first major frost of the season. It served as a reminder that there are now very few flat turf meetings left this year but we're taking advantage of Nottingham's penultimate fixture tomorrow when we send John Hawkins' Yvonne Evelyn (pictured) out in the maiden over one mile. It is the three year old's second run and she is developing into a nice-looking filly. Kevin Ghunowa takes the ride which will take 3llbs off and, providing she handles the ground, we are expecting her to enjoy the extra furlong (she ran over seven last time out). Also running tomorrow is Mexilhoeira who is bred and part-owned by Derek and Wendy Price. The filly is making her debut for the yard and Liam Jones will take the ride on her over six furlongs in the maiden at Kempton. She is a very buzzy filly and we are hoping she will settle and not over-exert herself too early on in the race.
Promising debuts
21st October 2008
Last Friday saw two very encouraging debut performances from Flying Silks and Django Reinhardt, when both horses ran very well at Kempton. Flying Silks especially caught the eye, running on strongly from his bad draw. The Racing Post commented "The two newcomers from the Gask yard both showed ability. Flying Silks had the worst draw and ended up racing widest in the straight, but he was keeping on at the finish, and so too was Django Reinhardt, who started slowly". Both of the two year olds will have learned a lot from the experience and will no doubt come on for it. Django Reinhardt (pictured, far side, galloping with Die Haard) still has a fair bit of maturing to do and will be switched off now until next season. Flying Silks may have one more run before we do the same with him. They are both looking like nice three year old prospects.
Good runs from Ellie and Ramon
14th October 2008
Recently we have been talking mainly about our two year olds but this week it was two of the old-timers who put in nice runs. On Sunday afternoon John Hawkins' four year old filly, Eleanor Eloise, ran a great race to finish fourth at Great Leighs. The distances were a short head, a head and a neck and 'Ellie' (pictured) did actually hit the front before showing a little greeness and wandering around a bit. It was her first run since March and we were all screaming her on. John was with his daughter who the horse is named after and he said it was incredible fun watching the race and hearing the crowd shouting his daughters name. The filly will probably run at Bath on the 22nd where she should benefit both physically and mentally from Sunday's experience. Remember Ramon started as the rank outsider in his race at the same track last Thursday but ran a very nice race to come a fast finishing 5th of the 12 runners. This was only his second run back after having a year and a half off of the track and it is good to see him back running well.
Lots of runners and more Australian arrivals
07th October 2008
We are sending out a wide range of horses this week, starting with Remember Ramon at Great Leighs on Thursday. Chris Catlin takes the ride on the five year old who runs over one mile two in the handicap at 9.20. The gelding (pictured galloping at home) has come back in good form from his recent race at Kempton and that run combined with the extra two furlongs should hopefully produce a good effort from him.