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Merry Christmas
18th December 2007
The Christmas season is now in full swing and one of racing's most popular days, Boxing Day, is fast approaching. Although we haven't got anything in the King George, at least not this year, we have got some exciting runners to look out for a bit further north at Huntingdon. Lining up for her final bumper will hopefully be Northern Seren, Evelyn Smith's gorgeous 6 year old mare. This lovely horse (pictured below) has been working very well at home and we are hopeful of a decent run from her in her mare's only race. Unfortunately Evelyn will not be able to cheer her girl on as she has the tough job of being in the Caribbean for Christmas but she has assured us she will be there in spirit.
Keeping Northern Seren company will be Micky Cole and possibly Saucy Night too. It will be Micky Cole's first run for us and he goes over 2 mile 6 in the Handicap hurdle. Micky is owned by Harry Findlay (via his mother Maggie) and is one of his and her favourite horses. Harry recently said winning a small race with Micky Cole (pictured below) would mean as much to him as winning one of the big ones with Denman, as the horse is named after one of Harry's late friends. Like Northern Seren, the horse is in good form and, while he will probably need the run after such a long lay-off, we are hopeful he will go well. Saucy Night's Boxing Day schedule depends on whether he runs at Uttoxeter this Friday. He is entered in a 3 mile chase and, ground permitting, will probably go there rather than Huntingdon. The horses are starting to run into form so keep an eye on our runners over the next few weeks.
We had some more new arrivals from the Cheltenham horses in training sales this week. The first one I will introduce you to is Quedillac, a 3 year old French-bred gelding. He is by Clerkenwell who raced for Sheikh Mohammed and has sired some jumps winners. This lovely horse has beautiful floaty paces and a nice straight action. We rode him for the first time this morning (see photo below) and he didn't put a foot wrong.
Arriving from the sales with Quedillac was Hold's Nik (see photo), a striking chestnut gelding by Nikos. He wasn't quite as relaxed as his fellow new arrival when ridden this morning but soon settled down and looks like he could be a nice horse. The third arrival from the sales was an unnamed Flemensfirth gelding, also 3 years old. Flemensfirth is a very good sire of National Hunt horses and his jumping progeny have won over £1,238,776. All of these horses are going straight into full work and will go jumping next year.
Two more horses also moved into the Beeches this week. Chief Exec is a horse that Jeremy liked the look of when he saw him running at Lingfield. He duly put in a claim for him and the horse came home with us. He's a 5 year old brown gelding (pictured below) who has already won races and been placed plenty of times. Jeremy felt he was very unlucky in the Lingfield race and undisputedly ran on well to finish a fast-closing 3rd. He is a horse that we feel could be a lot of fun and we would be surprised if he hasn't got more wins in him. Making the move from Evan Williams' yard was Sowdrey, a 3 year old bay gelding who has run well on the flat and has just one hurdle race under his belt. He is currently on our walkers and we will look to race him again next year.
With so many nice new (and old!) horses now at the Beeches we are looking to start up some more syndicates & partnerships in the New Year. We have had a lot of interest from people who would like to have a share in a horse and are looking at offering fixed monthly prices on some horses who could really be a lot of fun to get involved with. There are a wide variety of horses here and we can cater for people who want to be involved with the National Hunt side of the game as well as for those who are more flat orientated (we have 10 stunning yearlings who will turn 2 on January the 1st). My personal favourite is getting involved in a nice dual purpose horse. If you are interested in joining a syndicate or partnership and want to come along and meet the team here (human & indeed equine), see all the new facilities, etc. please get in touch with our syndicate manager, Kelly Baker at kelly@horsesfirstracing.com.
Next week's news will be a little later than usual, due to next Tuesday being Christmas day, however I will update you on our Boxing Day runners. In case you don't get a chance to check back over the holidays in addition to backing Northern Seren can I also strongly suggest you put any money you have saved for the January sales on Denman winning the Lexus Chase in Ireland on the 28th.
I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very merry Christmas and here's to what will undoubtably be will be a fantastic 2008. Thanks to everyone this year for the amazing support and goodwill you've shown us and we'll see you at the races soon.
This week's quote is:
"Happy Anniversary"
To my wife Oriana for 5 years hard service and I wish everyone else a very happy winter solstice on Friday 21st.
