Our Elsie
Steve C col       
Our Elsie : 2015 bay mare
Owner :  Chamberlain Bros.
Dusty close up

Pedigree

                                                                      Sadler's Wells
                                        Yeats
                                                                      Lyndonville
  Our Elsie
  2015 bay mare
                                                                      Beneficial
                                        Well Disguised
                                                                      Executive Move

The family

Our Elsie is the third foal out of the Dodlands Steading trained racemare Well Disguised. Picked up by Donald as a 3yr old at Doncaster Sales, Well Disguised raced for Al Duncan and 'Lucky Dave' Leslie for whom she won 4 hurdles and was placed numerous times in bumpers and hurdles.
Well Disguised is a half sister to a useful staying jumper in Paul Nicholls' French Executive, the winner of 7 races over jumps including the Sussex National. 
The granddam, Executive Move, unraced but a half sister to useful hurdler/chaser Parson's Green, who won 7 races for Nicky Henderson in the early 90s. 4th dam Bruff Gypsy is a half sister to  Scottish National winner Cockle Strand.
Well Disguised has produced 5 living foals, and in addition to 'Margaret' there are a half sister (b 2012, injured as a yearling, broodmare), winning bumper/hurdler Eternally Yours (b 2013) and a gelding by Midnight Legend (b 2016), both in training at Dodlands,
In 2020, she produced a cracking colt foal by Linda's Lad.

About the sire

Yeats (bay horse b 2001) was an outstanding racehorse. He was a tall, good topped horse with a powerful round action when trained over 7 seasons by Aiden O'Brien and winning 15 of his 26 races. He is best remembered as the only horse to win the Ascot Gold Cup four times, a race that has been run for over 200 years.

Owned by the Coolmore organisation, he was retired to stud in 2010 and marketed initially as a flat stallion but since 2014 has gradually gravitated to the ranks of being a National Hunt sire. And a very good one at that.

He has regularly covered books of mares into the hundreds most years, and Grade 1 success has come his way through the likes of racemares Shattered Love (winner of the JLT Chase at 2018 Cheltenham Festival) and Augusta Kate. With his youngest stock being only 8 year olds in 2019, this is a sire who can rise to the top of the NH lists in the next 4-5 years.

Dusty schooling
Form Summary

Season 2020-21 outlook
Our Elsie had actually been showing up well in the morning exercise gallops prior to her debut in a bumper at Ayr in November '19. We were taken aback by her slightly underwhelming performance that day, up with the pace but weakening from 4 out.
She seemed fine afterwards and we had her fully checked out but nothing untoward has arisen. It may just have been she was still on the weak side.

So, she has had a good time out at summer grass and has come back into the stable in August in fine fettle. The free-moving Our Elsie, an attractive, determined-looking mare will initially be aimed at bumpers in 2020-21.
Purchased for racing by Steve and Barry Chamberlain, and we hope she's very lucky for the lads.

Previously....
Our Elsie is somewhat of a collector's item these days....a purchase for Dodlands Steading which is not from the NH sales ring!

In the summer of 2017, Eternally Yours was in the stable and had impressed the staff in her morning work over the previous 4 or 5 months. Although the daughter of Well Disguised was a few months away from her first racecourse appearance, we became interested in her younger half sister by Yeats. An offer was made to her breeder and a deal was done to suit both parties.

Two years down the line and we are delighted with 'Margaret'. She was educated by Gary Rutherford in the Spring of 2018, and the local handler himself was very pleased with the young filly and even passed on a couple of videos of her nimbly jumping some low-lying poles. And our staff were equally impressed when the filly was stabled here for a couple of weeks to continue her early gallop experience.

Given time to strengthen and grow, 'Margaret' was brought back into the yard early in 2019 where she was given a slightly more harder routine alongside several of her fellow unraced 4 year olds. The opportunity was also taken to test her upsides some of our more mature mares too, and again we were delighted with her.
Maybe not as forward at the same stage as her illustrious half-sister (now a triple winner with an Official Rating high of 128) but the family resemblance is uncanny.

Season win 2nd 3rd 4th other
2019-20 NH Flat 1
2020-21 NH Flat         1
2020-21 Hurdles         3
Current Season Form
22 March 21 Kelso : 2m novices' hurdle (Class 4)  good 12 ran (B Campbell (3)) -  Fell                                                     
Fell heavily 1st, fatally injured
A sad loss to connections and the yard. A lovely mare.
22 February 21 Carlisle 2m 1f Novices Hurdle (Class 4) soft (heavy places) 12 ran (C Bewley) - 8th (beaten 51½l)                                        video
Tracked leading group, pushed along after 3 out, ridden and outpaced 2 out, weakened after last
A fair novice hurdle for a Monday Carlisle card. The winner (Word Has It) is clearly useful and Our Elsie ran quite well for much of the race, losing touch from 2 out. She will do better in handicaps and will look to qualify for a mark next time.

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6 December 20 Kelso : 2m 5f mares' novices' hurdle (Class 4)  soft 11 ran (C Bewley) -  7th (beaten 36¾l)                                                   racevideo
Waited with in rear, took closer order after 4 out, not fluent 3 out and soon ridden, weakened and behind after 2 out
We were quite pleased with Our Elsie on her hurdling debut. She jumped soundly in the main but just couldn't go with the leaders from 3 out. One for handicap hurdling.

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4 November 20 Musselburgh : 2m NH Flat (Class 5)  good 13 ran (C Bewley) -  9th (beaten 24l)                                                                      racevideo
Settled in mid division, ridden 3f out, weakened final 2f
Our Elsie ran much the sort of same race as she had done on her debut 12 months earlier. She shows us plenty at home but on the racecourse, shapes as more of a staying sort. She'll now go down the hurdling route.
Previous Season Form
13 November 19 Ayr : 2m NH Flat (Class 5)  heavy 9 ran (C Whillans (3)) -  8th (beaten 22l)                                                                            racevideo
Tracked leading pair, outpaced and hampered 3f out, no danger afterwards
The was a first racecourse for 'Margaret' (aka 'Peggy') and whilst we hoped for better, the Yeats filly seemed to enjoy the occasion. She didn't quicken when the field set sail for home 3f out, but did keep on to the finish. A 4 year old, a bit weak at present, but she'll improve with time and maturity.
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