Friday 13th September, 2024

Bluenose Belle as suspected, prefers to go right-handed rather than left and Silvestre de Sousa said that she had a tendency to hang to the right during the race at Lingfield on Wednesday.  Making the running to the straight, Silvestre reported that he couldn’t quicken off the sharp bend and suggested we run her either right-handed or on a more galloping track left-handed.  We will look for something suitable in a few weeks time and also look forward to her hurdling career later in the year.

We have Fighting Poet entered back at Brighton on Tuesday dropping back to a mile and a quarter, which will hopefully bring about some improvement.  Many of the string now are stepping up their work and are pleasing us and we look forward to having them ready for the racecourse towards the end of October.

Congratulations to Heros on winning both the BBC Berkshire and Oxfordshire ‘Making a Difference Awards’ in the last couple of weeks.  As a Trustee of the charity, it is extremely satisfying that the endeavours of all those that contribute to it’s success are recognised in such a public way.  Congratulations to Grace Muir and the forty plus team who make such a day-to-day difference to both people and horses lives through their passion and hard work.

This week Sir Michael Stoute announced his retirement from training at the end of the season.  Like many other trainers, Sir Michael has been a fantastic role model having been at the top of his game for half a century showing an incredible understanding of the thoroughbred.  A master of going with the grain of nature, many of his great horses improved year after year due to his patience and skill.  We wish him a happy and long retirement, especially following his love of cricket.

Great to meet up for lunch with Dame Jilly Cooper yesterday along with Jen Leigh.  Jen very kindly bought a signed copy of Jilly’s latest novel Tackle at our village charity auction a few months ago.  All three of us had great fun having the book personally signed yesterday during National Racehorse Week and swapped tote bags.

Jilly is a great animal lover as everyone knows and like millions of others, appreciates and loves the thoroughbred racehorse.  It is wonderful to see so many others doing exactly the same this week.