24th June 2017

The seven 3 year olds we bought in Goffs are now all backed and riding around the farm, they will trot around the farm for a week or so before having quiet hacks on the sand and up the hill before getting a few week’s grass before they tread the long road to the racecourse. Not one of them has made life difficult for us or themselves and have been beautifully behaved.

Jester Jet has gone home for a rest and David’s Phoebe arrived, she is by Dubai Destination and 4 years of age. She has plenty of pre-training under her belt during her 4 years of life and will soon come to hand.

Yesterday I went to Little Lodge Stud where we summer some horses, you need plenty of time on your hands when visiting Robert Chugg. There’s no shortage of horses at Little Lodge and they all have to be visited.

We are always looking for ways to improve the facilities and horse’s performance and will be installing a vibrating floor next month. I believe it will be a huge asset to the training facilities here. The claimed benefits of the floor make interesting reading and plenty of sense. The digger is due in the first week of July and will make the water walk for the horses, it will be naturally fed, 80 meters long 2.5 meters wide.

I have been looking forward to watching The Lions first test all week and was only disappointed by the result. The skill and pace the All Blacks play at is incredible, I don’t recall seeing the ball recycled so quickly as I did this afternoon. At times The Lions played with real flare but were simply outclassed by a world class team. To see a hooker take a ball off his boot laces and go over for a try was simply magic.