Horses First Racing

A perfect autumn morning

23rd October 2007

Today was a lovely day for watching the horses working on the gallops. Wrapped up against the distinct chill in the air, standing next to my old school mate Harry Findlay, it was a wonderful sight to see horse after horse gallop through the slight mist, the sun gleaming on their coats, steam coming from their nostrils, as they were put through their paces. I get as much enjoyment from watching old favourites like Saucy Night and Jahash work as I do seeing the youngsters being prepared for their first races. Below is a photo of our lovely Street Cry colt working with Escolhida, our gorgeous Montjeu filly who is Septimus' half sister. Both of these youngsters will be making their racecourse debuts soon, which is a thought to warm you up on a chilly morning.

At the moment it wouldn't be the weekly news without introducing you to a new horse in the yard and this week it is the turn of our new yearling colt by Haafhd. He was bought at the Tattersalls sales and has come here to begin his racing career. Haafhd won the 2000 Guineas (see the photo below) and the Champion Stakes in 2004. He was a stakes winning 2 year old in track record time and convincingly beat top class horses including Refuse to Bend, Doyen and Norse Dancer. Our yearling is from his first crop of foals and we very much hope Haafhd's offspring take after their famous father. Our colt is out of the mare Decision Maid, who was a winner over 7 furlongs as a 2 year old. She has already produced Latin Lad who has a win and 2 seconds to his name from 3 starts. The colt, along with our other yearlings, is currently being backed in preparation for what we hope will be a great 2 year old season.

We were visited this week by Ross Williamson and his lovely wife Robyn (both pictured below with myself). Ross is an Australian vet and nutritionist who works all over the world, mainly with racehorses. He sat and talked with myself and Jeremy about a range of issues and had some very interesting views on veterinary medicine, nutrition and horse care. Ross is an amazing character with an enormous wealth of knowledge on all aspects of getting the very best out of racehorses. He has been back in touch since and we are very grateful for his help and support.

Mowadeh wasn't 100% on Saturday and so we pulled him from his race on Saturday evening. He's absolutely fine now and will now run on November 1st at Wolverhampton. This week we have the possibility of a couple of runners representing the yard at the races. First up is 2 year old Joshua, a lovely bay colt owned by Richard Page. He will be making his racecourse debut in a 5 furlong sprint at Bath tomorrow, running in the 3.00 Mitie Engineering Maiden Stakes. Joshua (pictured working below) is still learning his trade and it will be a big day for him so we are hopeful of a nice run that he will learn from and enjoy. On Saturday the smart Remember Ramon will possibily head to Doncaster for the 4.15 race run over 1 mile 4 furlongs. As always with a horse of his caliber, the race will be competitive but he is in good form and we hope he will go well. It will be his first run for the yard and we will learn more about him.

This week's quote is actually a joke told by Ross Williamson. Please bear in mind he's a vet:

God is sitting watching his favourite horse a beautiful white colt dashing across the clouds and he's very happy with how he is going. Later that day the devil calls up to him to "have a look at this 3 year I have". God has a look at the dark black colt dashing thru the flames and says "yes, he's very nice perhaps we should arrange a race?". The devil replies " no way, that youngster you've got is never a 3 year old". God assures him that he is and after much discussion they agree to get him vetted. God calls up St Peter and tells him to get the white colt vetted. St Peter looks to him with a pained expression and says "I'm afraid lord we don't have any of them up here ..."

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