7th November 2019

All those that ran at Chepstow are fine this morning, Neville’s Cross ran a nice race and he just needs time to fill his frame. In time, 3 mile chases will be his forte and he’s a horse I like a lot. Floating Rock still appears all at sea and the penny is yet to completely drop. Vado Forte took a step back in the right direction and needs someone to cut him some slack given he has a stop start year last time around. We won’t hold our breath. Lamanver Storm was like a rabbit in headlights, Richard said he was taken off his feet from flag fall. He was going no better at any stage in the race than when hit the line, he will need an obstacle and a trip.  

This morning the horses had typical canters around the sand and up the hill. 

Lambourn have chosen to close their grass facilities to visitors, having encouraged us all there they now choose to pull the rug from under our feet. I appreciate that too many horses have an impact on grass but they have nothing to deal with when compared to years ago when I worked there. I’d say well over 100 horses used to go around the bowl and up the back of the hill twice a week, Jenny Pitman used to go around the bowl more than once. In short, they must be the worse bunch of grounds men in history of looking after Lambourn gallops, all they want to do is keep warm in their tractors. Eddie Fisher used to wear a rain coat and wellies, he would follow horses up the grass with his team armed with forks treading in, in all weathers all morning and in the afternoon if needed. Eddie would have a man, if not two at each hurdle or fence on the schooling grounds too treading in as the horses went up over. I am annoyed that we can no longer use their grass as a result of pure laziness over and above anything else. If they wanted a chocolate box training center with no horses in the village they’ve all but created it. Flat horses now occupy the majority of the stables in Lambourn yet they still can’t cope with a fraction of the numbers they used to. If Eddie is looking down from his cloud, he’d be appalled. We used to go twice a year and it was an important part of the education for our young horses. The Jockey Club can just sell off Kempton to raise revenue. One Lambourn trainer told me yesterday that Lambourn will have more winners if outsiders can’t use the grass. They have the grass and admitted they never use it which leaves me baffling with their thought process.

Capac goes to Warwick tomorrow, to read my thoughts click here.