Thursday 27th August, 2026

Talking Bear made a very pleasing debut in the seven furlong novices stakes at Kempton last night.  Showing inevitable greenness on his debut, he was pulled wide for a challenge in the straight by Callum Hutchinson and he stayed on well in the final furlong to be beaten just over five lengths by two decent novices.  Callum thought that he would come on a fair bit for this outing and to stick to seven furlongs for his next race and hopefully his very patient owner/breeders will be rewarded very soon.

Manton Road once again was slow away from the stalls which very likely cost him victory in the mile handicap as he was a fast finishing fourth.  He has a tendency to do this and we will work on this problem in the coming weeks and possibly step him up in trip as he appears in good form at present.

The ground at Wolverhampton was riding as deep as the jockeys have ever known it and this did not help Fighting Poet in the mile and a half classified.  As he has had a few quick races, we will now give him a bit of a break.  He has an engagement on Monday in the middle of Birmingham to help promote National Racehorse Week at a Pony Club and Pitch2Progress event where he will enjoy meeting members of the public.

Thank you to everyone who supported our open morning yesterday to celebrate National Racehorse Week.  Around 150 people attended to watch the horses on the gallops, a schooling session with Harry Bannister, retired racehorse Shipping Forecast give a dressage demonstration and listen to various interviews in the village hall discussing the wonderful care that racehorses receive throughout their lives.

All attendees came away great informed with demonstrations from our vet, physio, dentist and farrier and thank you to all who helped make the day such a special one.  We were very lucky with the weather and hopefully many thousands of people have been able to celebrate the racehorse this week.

Today we celebrate 25 years of Jo being my P.A. and as she has pointed out to me, she has worked here for half of her life!  Everyone connected with Adlestrop Stables knows that Jo has not only been award winning but an angel to all that know her and we look forward to the next 25 years.