18th June 2017

I spent most of last week in Ireland at the Goffs sale flying out on Sunday in preparation to get around all of day one horses before the sale started. Monday was a long day but I managed to accomplish what I wanted.  We bought 7 horses home from the sale. Trade was strong in a very competitive market. Goffs select a particular type of horse for their sale, the horses tend not to have the size and scope you may find at other sales but plenty of winners come from the sale. We would hope to buy 10 -15 store horses each year and need to be at all the store sales to make sure we hit our target. A week today I will be heading back out to Ireland for the Tattersalls Derby Sale.

I was away for Worcester on Wednesday where Bhakti ran a super race finishing second again. Arctic Sword ran with credit, the race possibly came a week too soon after his previous run at Worcester and weakness just caught up with him. He will be let down down and bought back in a week before Doncaster August sale. He will improve no end with hurdles and a summer under his belt.

On Thursday I landed back in Birmingham and headed straight to Uttoxeter where we ran Mcgelliott, he too is now on the transfer list and will head to Ascot sales if we can’t rehome him sooner.

The 3 year olds I bought in Ireland all arrived in the yard on Friday morning, having ridden out 3 lots and given the new horses a quick lunge I headed to Aintree with Jester Jet. The journey there was painful, the M6 was like a car park. Jester Jet finished 3^rd, she ran her race getting to the leader who, in hindsight, was gifted the race when the flag went up. It was a very difficult race for Robbie to ride, Jester Jet had top weight, giving only a 1lb to the winner who has won off 136 and had a rating of 142 previously. The winner was racing off 119 on Friday evening. Jester Jet was up 12lbs from her last win and ran a very nice race given what she faced.  Jester has won 3 out of 4 runs for us and will now get a well earned holiday before having a winter campaign. The journey home through Dudley was an experience too. You’d be surprised what you see driving through Dudley at 11 O’clock in the evening.

Yesterday we got all the 3 year olds in full tack and a rider up on them in the stable, they all behaved beautifully and will come through the system in their own time.

This morning, Sunday we schooled Amalfi Dough and Midnight Monty both have entries this week, running plans are yet to be finalized. It is fair to say we’ve certainly been keeping busy.