Saturday gallops - lots 1 and 2

A bright, end of summer morning greeted the team, visiting owners and our web-site loafers on Saturday morning. A glorious day in the Scottish Borders, and as with every National Hunt yard throughout the country, Dodlands Steading was buzzing with excitement.

A Racing Life.....nothing can beat it really!
Both of Donald's sons - Garry and Callum - were on (separate) holidays for a few days in sunny Spain. As much as time abroad with friends was enjoyable, both pined for each day's morning workouts in the yard, such is the excitement build-up with the string in these early days of the season.
It truly is an enthralling time, as stable favourites return and the unraced and lightly-raced youngsters from last season mix with a couple of 3yr olds from this season's intake. Magical!!
All of the string will be covered in the following couple of articles, with lots of photos......

And it's not just the team who are brimming with enthusiasm, as Dodlands new top owner Mark 'Mouse' Young was present and correct on the gallops for first lot!
Steady cantering, twice up, was on the menu for the first half dozen of the day.

• 'Seb' - our unraced Prince Flori gelding, one of The Buyers Club's portfolio
• 'Mila' - unraced Durban Thunder filly
• Keyboard Gangster
• 'Hope' - TD9 Racing's unraced Shantou filly
• Paper Roses
• Rob Bewley's Bushmill Boy

The web photographer eventually sauntered into the yard just before 8 o'clock, and joined 'Mouse' halfway up the gallops in time to view Lot 2. This group split into two and did slightly differing canters.
A couple moved with ease over 3/4 of the gallop, and both seemed to enjoy being allowed to travel at a slightly faster pace!

• Stainsby Girl (Garry)
• Eternally Yours (Rebecca)

Eternally Yours (Rebecca) leads the chestnut, white blaze Stainsby Girl (Garry)

Following on from this duo and completing Lot 2, were a quartet of horses who came up the full length of the gallop twice, at a steadier pace.

• Paper Promise (Leah)
• Dali Mail (Kingy)
• Baby Ticker (Lewis)
• Big Bad Dream (Callum)

Paper Promise leads Dali Mail, Baby Ticker and Big Bad Dream

Saturday gallops - lot 3

Lot 3, the last group of the morning, contained a mixture of horses at varying levels of experience and readiness.

First a group of three, then one of four

• Danced Every Dance (Leah)
• 'Tommy ' - the Buyers Club owned 3yr old gelding by Sageburg
• 'Carter' - 3yr old gelding by Libertarian which is owned by a new syndicate to the yard

Danced Every Dance led the two youngsters at a steady pace once up the gallop, and completed her morning exercise with a second spin on her own.
The second group of this lot consisted of

• The Boo Box (Rebecca)
• Honda Fifty (Laura)
• 'Margaret' - the Yeats filly (Ollie)
• Banks O'Houxty (Kingy)

Then The Boo Box and 'Margaret' came up a second time.

The Boo Box (Rebecca) is followed by Honda Fifty (Laura) and 'Margaret' (Ollie)

Couple of our recent acquisitions arrive at Dodlands

At the start of the week, two of the 3 year olds bought over in Ireland in August arrived at our yard. Having completed their initial education with Nick Orpwood, these young geldings will now spend a couple of weeks at Dodlands before heading out to the pasture to further strengthen and mature.

But, for the next few weeks, they will be part of the morning exercise group and this experience will be invaluable to their respective racing careers. And on Saturday 'Carter' (Libertarian gelding) and 'Tommy' (Sageburg gelding) were on the gallops ridden by Callum and Garry respectively.

Danced Every Dance (Leah) leads 'Tommy' (Garry) and 'Carter' (Callum)