Mid week gallops
We had the majority of the string on the gallops, with the remainder taken on the nearby lanes for gentle exercise.
Lot 1 did a couple of spins on the Up the Middle gallop, with lot 2 coming up once. First lot consisted of
- Snapping Turtle (Ross)
- Tomahawk Wood (Garry)
- Bollin Julie (Carly)
- Charlie Bucket (Craig)
Snapping Turtle and Bollin Julie are entered at Musselburgh (Friday, needs more rain to run) and Carlisle(Sunday, needs more rain as well) respectively.
Julie has benefitted from her outing at Newcastle recently, but will probably strip fitter after this run as well. It's an amateur riders handicap hurdle, and our thoughts of using Callum's flatmate at Venetia's (Jamie Hamilton) were scuppered upon the realisation that he'd turned conditional earlier this month.
Tomahawk Wood has strengthened up considerably in the last few months and we are delighted with him. We expect him to be making his novice hurdle debut in the next 2-3 weeks. He may not be up to winning a novice, but should be the type to be competitive in handicap hurdles in the spring.
Left to right - Bollin Julie, Tomahawk Wood, Charlie Bucket, Snapping Turtle
Lot 2 consisted of
- Ellistrin Belle (Ross)
- unraced Endoli mare (Garry)
- unraced River Falls gelding (Carly)
- Bollin Fiona (Craig)
Ellistrin Belle just needs a gallop each day to keep fit, and looks to follow up her Sedgefield victory over course and distance next Tuesday. Word of caution though, the handicapper has raised our mare by 13lb for that victory, clearly spotting a potential Champion Hurdler amongst her beaten rivals that day......
Our unraced gelding is also looking at a racecourse debut in a bumper in the next 2-3 weeks. He should improve after a couple of bumper outings for experience.
Left to right - Ellistrin Belle, Bollin Fiona and the unraced
Endoli mare and River Falls gelding
The group doing roadwork included Shades of Midnight and Hartforth.
Our recent Irish purchases by Gamut
As is our normal practice, the couple of horses by Gamut that we purchased in Ireland in August have been roughed off. The filly and the gelding had reached the stage where they were regularly working upsides on the gallops, with the filly in particular doing everything we'd asked of her.
Anyway, they'll be given time to strengthen up again, with a view to bringing them back into training mid January followed up by bumper debuts around April/May.
All being well of course!
Joe is doing well!!
One of our 'retired' chasers - Shadow Boxer - has found a new lease of life in the dressage arena. Now owned by Alison Rhind (the AR in owners Star Racing), 'Joe' completed his first dressage event with aplomb.
Alison sent us a link to the video of his performance in which he achieved a mark of 64% and a very creditable 5th place.
Super stuff, well done to all concerned.
