Horses First Racing

Previous Newsletter - 04th March 2008

February/March

04th March 2008

Chief Exec storms home

There is nothing quite like a winner to get the yard buzzing and thanks to a horse called Chief Exec, the celebrations were in full swing last Friday night. The six year old gelding stormed home at Wolverhampton in a competitive handicap on the all-weather to win easily by two and a half lengths. It is over two years since the horse's last win and Jeremy's decision to run him in blinkers certainly played a large part in his success. The Racing Post commented: 'The first-time blinkers certainly brought about plenty of improvement from Chief Exec, who showed a smart turn of foot to settle this in a matter of strides. Now that connections have found the key to him, he should continue to pay his way'. We have had the horse since last December when Jeremy picked him out and claimed him from a race at Lingfield and we look forward to many more fun days out with him. The Chief (pictured below), as he is known in the yard, may well run again this Friday - the 7th over course and distance. If you would like to get involved with this horse he is available for syndication. For more information on him please see the Marketplace on our website. The win was even picked up down under (see our press section).

Desert Quest shows his class

It is always nice to welcome new horses to the yard and this is especially true when the new arrival is a top-class animal who has won convincingly on the flat, over hurdles and over fences. We were therefore delighted when Desert Quest moved into The Beeches last month. This quality 8 year old gelding has won two chases and also counts the Vincent O'Brien handicap hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival as one of his 11 victories. The horse ran his first race for us at Huntingdon, coming 2nd in a red hot novice chase, beaten only by the first-class Modicum who is now bound for The Arkle at Cheltenham. The two finished 20 lengths ahead of the rest of the field, all of whom have been rated upwards of 129 over hurdles. Desert Quest (pictured below) jumped superbly and we were delighted with his run which has earned him a chasing mark of 142. He'll be back racing later this month and is an exciting to horse to have in the yard.

New horses at the farm

Desert Quest's former stable-mate, Derry City, has also made the move from Paul Nicholls' yard to Horses First. This five year old gelding is by Old Vic, a renowned jumps sire and his dam is the half-sister to the Grand National horse, Nathen Lad. The horse ran third in his first bumper at Ludlow in December and had his first run for Horses First at Plumpton on the 25th of Feb, making his debut over hurdles under Richard Johnson. The horse (pictured on our Seawalker) jumped very well on ground that rode a lot softer than the official 'good' rating and finished 5th. He will come on both physically and mentally for the experience.

Yankeedoodledandy joined us at the start of the month to begin work after being sidelined with an injury for the last year. The seven year old gelding already has six wins and ten placings to his name. He ran 2nd in the Juvenile Novices Hurdle at Cheltenham under AP McCoy a couple of seasons back and also finished a respectable 8th out of 21 finishers in the 2005 Triumph hurdle. The horse (pictured below) is owned by Ken Tyre who loves him to bits and warned us what a character he is. This soon became apparent as he let loose with a few bucks in his stable and then proceeded to do some handstands on the walker! Thankfully his legs feel fine and he is using our Seawalker regularly which will do him the world of good. He is obviously feeling well and we look forward to getting him back on the track.

Another of our two year olds came back from her pre-training yard recently. She is a cracking filly by Bahamian Bounty out of Locharia and looks in superb condition. It is always an exciting time watching the two year olds progress. The staff have decided on their favourites already although several are still due to arrive in the weeks to come. The development and change that can come over a young horse as they mature can be staggering. Most of them are actually yet to turn two and so the changes that occur in them as they get their first pieces of work to deal with are profound. Last month 'the babies' went upsides for the first time in a steady canter around the bowl (our flat gallop). They have also been introduced to the hill gallop and everyone is excited to see how they will progress as their work is gently stepped up. The photo below shows them cantering on the flat gallop. The Bahamian Bounty filly is at the back.

Works complete, work continues ...

Jeremy breathed a sigh of relief last month as the resurfacing work on our hill gallop was finally completed (just in time to get Chief Exec ready). Though being out of action for only a month, it felt like an eternity and we now fully appreciate how lucky we are to have such top-class facilities on site. We now have two first class tracks and Jeremy is enjoying being able to combine a lot of long steady canters on the flat with some hill and faster work in the horses' exercise programs. The hill gallop is pictured below.

For the past few months we have been bombarding our construction team, led by the unflappable Trevor Coffen, with project after project. The latest task set to them is the conversion of three barns. The first barn is to be turned into stables with 12 loose boxes being fitted. We already have horses waiting to fill the boxes and hope to have the barn up and ready to go within a month. The photo below shows how much progress has been made on it so far. The second barn will provide an extension to our current wash-down area and the third will provide our growing army of staff with a larger staff room. Once this has been completed, Trevor's attention will turn to building another brand new barn with a further 20 loose boxes.

Latest Technology

We have also started using a fantastic device called an E-Tracker which monitors a horse's complete workout giving data on its heart-rate and speed (see photo below). This is proving to be an extremely valuable tool in informing us how a horse copes with a certain piece of work and giving a guide to its fitness. The equipment has been developed in Australia and we did extensive research to find the best available system. We'll publish some of the data in future issues of this newsletter. There is some more Australian technology due to arrive with us soon and we'll let you know about it as soon as it clears customs.

Busy times ahead

With the hill gallop now completed we are looking forward to turning out plenty of jumpers for the second half of the season. Evelyn Smith's mare, Northern Seren, made her debut over hurdles at Plumpton on the 11th. Both Jeremy and our conditional jockey Luke Kilgarriff (pictured below schooling the mare yesterday) were very happy with the way she jumped first time out and she is all set to continue her education in what unfortunately is a red hot maiden hurdle at Wincanton this Thursday. Keeping her company there will hopefully be Micky Cole. He is in great form at home and ready to take his place in the handicap hurdle at 15.25 providing he doesn't get balloted out. Our third runner on Thursday will be heading a bit further afield. Eleanor Eloise is due to run at Wolverhampton in a 6 furlong handicap and we'd be disappointed if she didn't run another great race. The lorry will be heading north again on Friday when it takes stable legend, Saucy Night, to Leicester for the 14.50 amateur riders' handicap chase. Saucy is in top form at home, having recently come back from an operation to remove a tooth and it will be interesting to see how he goes. Later on Friday all being well the Chief goes for a quick back to back win at Wolverhampton at 18.50. Other horses to keep an eye out for this month are Northern Endeavour, Derry City, Paradigm Shift, The Empty Tin, Cheonmado, Stamford Street, and Shatter Resistant. For the very latest news and updates on runners check the website every Tuesday.

With spring in the air it's good to be alive and thanks to everyone for your messages of interest & support. Please feel free to forward this on to friends and family who might be interested in Horses First Racing.