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A good run and more entries to look out for
30th October 2007
Nobelix ran a good race yesterday at Lingfield to finish 3rd in a decent handicap on the all weather. We are still getting to know this little horse but he is very genuine and obviously talented and we look forward to what the future holds for him. Nobelix (pictured below coming home on the gallop) comes from a decent racing family. His 3 year-old sister, Noble Ginger, was third in a Group 3 race in France on Thursday and his 2-year-old sister, Nice And Spicy, was 3rd in her debut at Longchamp last week. He is already proven on both the flat and over hurdles and we have a range of options about where to go next with him.
We have two entries this week, the first of which is Mowadeh who runs at Wolverhampton tomorrow. He makes his debut for the yard in the 8.50 handicap, running just over a mile. The race won't be easy with fellow competitors like Lobengula who won at the track last time out and Emily's Place who has been 2nd in her three recent runs. Mowadeh (pictured below with bay filly Escolhida) has only modest form but he seems very well at home and we hope for a good run from him. We have dropped the horse back in trip, which his breeding suggests he will like and we will no doubt learn a lot about him from the run. The other entry is Saucy Night at Plumpton on Monday, although it is yet to be decided whether to run him over hurdles or fences. Saucy is in great form at home and we hope that conditions will be right for him to have a good run on Bonfire night. Members of our racing Club, Horses First Club, can go and watch Saucy run for free as an owner. They also have the opportunity to go to Wolverhampton to support Mowadeh (pictured below) tomorrow.
Another new horse arrived at the Beeches this week when three year old chestnut filly Ravenna joined us from Marcus Tregoning's yard. She is a lovely little horse who won four races on the trot in July. After winning the 4th, the Racing Post commented “Here Ravenna was completing a four-timer, and doing so with the minimum of fuss. Produced on a tight rein from off the pace, she needed only to be nudged out under a 6lb penalty to put the race in safe-keeping. On this evidence it would take a brave man to say that she cannot continue her winning sequence”. We will give her a break and then bring her back into work to race again next year.
The name game, as it applies to horses, is a remarkable rollercoaster of coming up with great suggestions only to find someone has already beaten you to the punch. In the old days you'd try and get a nice match between the sire (father) and dam (mother) i.e. a youngster by Northern Dancer out of a mare named Delightful Bliss could be called something like Dancing Delight or Northern Bliss. Sounds easy, except there are 10,000's of horses and it becomes harder and harder to get a name that is available AND that you want. I foolishly made a big deal about Number Nine Dream on this website a few weeks ago. We had it approved by Weatherbys, who manage the naming process, only for us to fall at the final hurdle to a veto because it uses a number in the name - which the powers that be have decided to no longer allow. Not good and I also had to deal with a telling off from our Racing Secretary Tammy for not waiting till the final, final, paperwork was in. The thing is how many great horses have bad names? Not many I can tell you. Secretariat, Galileo, Motivator, Fantastic Light, Dylan Thomas, Dancing Brave, (the recently lost) George Washington, Golden Fleece, you name them and they have great names. How about the fact that two of the greatest dancers of all time, Nureyev and Nijinsky, also happen to be two of the greatest horses (and indeed great sires). If you go racing you will see lots of horses with joke names like Meandbobshorse and Popsisclogs or just terrible names like Mad as a Hatter (as the horse bolts off) or Dead Slow and I can tell you there is a huge correlation between names and ability. We could have lots of debates as to why and feel free to share your good and bad names with me, but it certainly adds to the importance of getting the best possible name. It is great fun with the only downside being that every book you read or film you watch you find yourself thinking "Moby Dick ... win the Derby?"
This weeks quote is from Karson Leigh, one of my favourite, and also one of the most talented people I know.
"It has been scientifically verified that we continue to grow new brain cells all of our life! It's called neurogenesis. That's good news. The only thing that can stop this growth is stress. So, you're happy, and you get smarter. Or you're stressed and you get dumber."
Please have a read of a tremendous article on Neurogenesis. It really is startling stuff and includes another amazing quote "up to 1% of the neurons in the bird's song center are created anew, every day". Having been told all our lives we are losing brain cells everyday it's pretty nice to find out that if we don't allow stress to toxify our brains we can continue to mentally flourish and grow. Here's wishing you all a stress free day.
