1st March 2017

Triopas, Jester Jet, Bhakti, Russian Service, First Du Charmil, Super Sid, Agamemon, Chase End Charlie, Storm Nelson all schooled over hurdles. Sword of Fate, Black Bow, Toledo Silver and Arctic Sword all jumped some island fences.

The horses that worked yesterday all had quiet canters. Toni James was here to see Jester Jet school over hurdles after lunch we had another bunch of new owners looking around.

Triopas will run at Taunton tomorrow, hopefully, he is going to get some good ground for the first time in a long while and we hope it brings out a better performance than what we have seen of late. If the forecast rain hits Newbury we will have to rethink our plans for the weekend.

Many will have seen Gavin Sheehan getting unseated up the run in at Ffos Las earlier today when the horses swerved one way having been smacked and then the other way when he pulled his whip through and smacked the horse on the other side. It is very easy to be critical but it is just one of those things and only those of us who have spent more time in a saddle than out of it to understand how easy it is to be unshipped in such a fashion. He was caught off balance literally for a split second and that is all it takes. Had the horse helped him and come back underneath him he wouldn’t have happened. Unfortunately for Gavin, the horse continued to move away form him and the end result was him falling off. It all happens in a fraction of a second and the bloke needs no criticism. Grandstand jockeys and trainers should take out their own licenses if they think the job is easy. Before his horse had even crossed the line Donald McCain fell foul of a disgruntled punter today.  Footballers miss penalties, rugby players knock the ball on, golfers miss putts all of which are paid considerably more than jockeys. Jockeys make mistakes and suffer misfortune too, sometimes, not through their own doing. Jockeys have to ride what they see in front of them. As once famously quoted by Lester Piggott, a good jockey doesn’t need orders and a bad one couldn’t carry them out anyway; so it is best not to give them.