News

It’s a funny morning so far in that it started off very warm, but has quickly got colder as the light has come up. I started off with just a jumper on but have now progressed to a big coat when I went out to watch them on the heath. We have definitely got rain forecast but when and how much is debateable. I hope we can get enough to take the sting out of the ground. All the racecourses are hedging their bets at present as they don’t know either and with watering stopped, it will be touch and go as to whether to run your horses or not. Everybody who should be in is in and the horses are getting a good canter, mainly on the Rubbing House polytrack. All has gone well so far.

There’s an interesting little article today in the Racing Post after an anti-doping conference held in London last week. The BHA has committed £1 million to fight what they call gene manipulation. This looks to be a problem in human sport and they must have a reason for thinking it will be used in our sport. It evidently improves performance, changes breeding outcomes and speeds recovery from the raceday effort. It even helps recovery with injuries. How all this works is very scientific and we will have to just hope that it is got on top of and we keep the industry as clean as possible.

We still have two or three horses for sale and why they are is beyond me as they are big, strong two-year-olds who have developed well, are sound and I know have plenty of ability. There are some new pictures of them today on the site and anybody interested, whether to buy them outright or come into shares, would go a long way to do better at the price. If anybody is interested please give the office a ring and arrange a visit. You certainly won’t be disappointed.

It’s been a glorious weekend and very unusual for the Easter break as it is normally pouring with rain. It’s starting to really warm up now as we write this on Easter Monday, but according to the forecast we will start to get some rain by Wednesday. I hope they are correct as we have got a lot of horses ready to run but just need a bit of better ground. Everybody is in and working well - all racing stables work normally on Bank Holidays and the lads have a day off in lieu during the year. In fact we never know what day of the week it is usually as there is racing every single day of the year, other than Christmas Day and I wouldn’t put it past the powers that be to put it on then in the future.

The build up to the first two Classics continue with things changing every day. With the favourite out of the 2,000 Guineas it makes the race wide open and there could be surprises in both races. This year we have got a runner in the 1,000 Guineas with Garrel Glen. She has been pleasing me in everything she has done. She has done two good pieces of work in the last fortnight and we couldn’t be happier with her fitness and mental situation. I am sure she will not disgrace us on the big day.

We had quite a busy time with the mares this weekend. We had one covered, picked up the mare that had colic from the vets on Saturday and took another mare in there to have a minor operation. She came back on Sunday morning. It is always busy at this time of year with plenty of activity and the vets have been very busy this morning checking whether mares are in foal or not. It has been good news today which is great and let’s hope it continues that way. We have only one left to foal but a few need to get back into foal as quickly as possible.