Horses First Racing

Previous Newsletter - 01st December 2007

December 2007

01st December 2007

Since the last newsletter we have been delighted to welcome not only trainer Jeremy Gask to the farm but also his delightful family (pictured below), who have all arrived from Australia to make the Beeches their new home. Jeremy flew over in August and was followed by wife Kerrie, daughters Darcie and Larnie and son Harrison in October. They have moved into a cottage on the farm and are already like part of the family. Jeremy has spent the past few months getting to know the horses, staff and facilities and setting up the systems and practices to make us a world-class operation. It is difficult to describe the excitement here right now and we all look forward to the coming year with great anticipation.

The past few months at Horses First Racing have been a hive of activity and the amount of work that has gone on at the farm has been staggering. Our facilities have been upgraded once again to truly make The Beeches a state of the art training centre. We have added 12 brand new boxes to our capacity in a very smart American-style barn (pictured below). Another barn has been converted into a wash-down area with 5 new wash-down boxes each supplied with its own warm water hose (we have learned that Australians are very cold-phobic!), making the days of washing horses down one by one after exercise a thing of the past. Our flat horses are now able to do their stalls work in our brand new 3-bay set of starting stalls. They are much bigger than the old ones and are roomy and airy, making them as unthreatening as possible. Our outdoor school is still used daily for a variety of purposes and we have upgraded the outer track to a 'Soft-track' covering. This is basically waxed sand, which does not get dug up as much as the old surface and is much better for the horses to work on. We are still turning horses out as much as possible and the majority of our paddocks now have their own field shelters and self-filling troughs.

The fact that all the work mentioned above has been carried out in just a few months is amazing but even more so when you consider that we have also had extensive work done to our gallops. Our hill gallop is currently being resurfaced with the same Soft-track material that we have used in the school. We have also used the surface to re-create an old one mile track (pictured below) that goes around the perimeter of 'the bowl', our 42 acre field. This has provided us with a superb flat gallop that enables us to build up aerobic condition -allowing the horses to canter for miles without pulling up. The gallop can be used in either direction and all of the horses have taken very well to it, with most of them settling into a nice rhythm and really seeming to enjoy themselves out there. The horses are now able to have a lot of variety in their work programs, helping to keep them fresh and enjoying their jobs.

We have had an influx of very smart new horses since the last newsletter. Ouninpohja recently made the move from Paul Nicholls to Horses First. The horse is incredibly talented, being rated 106 on the flat and 141 over hurdles. Hopeful Purchase has joined us from Evan Williams' yard. Rated 86 on the flat, he ran in the Dubai Plate this year before coming straight back to England to run in 4 hurdle races, finishing 2nd 3 times and 3rd once. The horse has had a break and has just come back into work. Count Trevisio, El Diego and Hassaad all joined us from the horses in training sales and look like being very decent animals. Count Trevisio(pictured left), by Danehill, is an ex-Godolphin horse who won his debut by 3.5 lengths and also racked up a 1st and 2nd in Dubai earlier this year. El Diego, a former Coolmore horse by Sadler's Wells, has been steadily improving in his three races so far. After his last run the Racing Post commented: 'El Diego has shown a good deal of promise. He has a nice bit of ability and should have little trouble winning a race'. Hassaad has won three times, winning over a mile and giving every indication that he will stay over a longer trip. All three of these are being given a short break and will be brought into work in the New Year. Also making the Beeches her new home is Ravenna, joining us from Marcus Tregoning's yard. She is a lovely filly who won four races on the trot in July. Currently on a break, she will be brought back into work to race again next year. Ravenna joined us at about the same time as Nobelix, a smart 5 year old gelding rated 123 over hurdles and 87 on the flat with 6 wins to his name. He too is on a break but will be brought back into work for the second half of the National Hunt season. Other new arrivals include The Empty Tin and Bergo from Paul Nicholls' yard and Shatter Resistant and Mowadeh from Mick Channon's.

As well as these pre-established horses to keep an eye out for, we are also very excited about the 9 yearlings we have purchased that are currently being backed and ridden away. The only one to be officially named so far is Hanta Yo, a 105,000 guinea purchase by Alhaarth, out of an Indian Ridge mare. We also have a beautiful grey filly (pictured below) by the exceptional young stallion Acclamation, a colt who is a full brother to Abigail Pett by Medicean, a colt by Haafhd out of the mare Decision Maid, as well as offspring by Tobougg, King's Best, Barathea, Bahamian Bounty and Danetime. The future looks bright with these promising youngsters in the yard and we are looking forward to a good 2 year old season with them.

There will be plenty of runners to watch in the coming months. Seribase, Micky Cole, Saucy Night, The Empty Tin and Jahash (pictured below) are just some of the jumpers we will be sending out very soon. Paradigm Shift will be making his eagerly awaited debut in a bumper and Northern Seren will run in her last bumper before turning to hurdles soon. We will have flat horses running too with Maidanni, Street Power, Eleanor Eloise and Escolhida all names to look out for. You can keep track of our weekly runners via our newly redesigned website www.horsesfirstracing.com which has them listed under our horses in training section. They are also mentioned in the weekly news which is written every Tuesday and published on the homepage.

As ever, please do not hesitate to get in touch if you would like to have a horse in training with us or if you are interested in ownership or syndicate opportunities.

We would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and thank you for your continued interest and support of Horses First Racing.