15th September 2021

Only one empty saddle on Monday, it was not Lamanver Storm’s but a fresh 3-year-old. Yesterday we worked Glory and Fortune, Tea Clipper, Glory and Honour, Immortal Fame, King Ferdinand, Toucan Sam, Dorking Boy, Roger Rarebit, Marty Time and Black Anthem. Lamanver Storm and Ginny’s Destiny did a little more than they have been doing. The horses seem in great nick and will be ready when the ground is safe. Yesterdays rain was welcome but I’m told that is that for a while so we won’t be getting ahead of ourselves quite yet.

Sebastopol returned back into training this week having had a nice break, fences will be on his agenda now.

This morning we schooled, Adrimel, Tea Clipper, Quick Draw, Gold Clermont, Black Anthem, Dorking Boy, Sebastopol, Quick Draw and Lamanver Storm over fences. Benito, Hesque De L’isle, Piaff Bubbles, Roger Rarebit, Velasco, Highstakesplayer, Argonauta, Marty Time, Immortal Fame, King Ferdinand, Glory and Honour, Pounding Poet, Lossiemouth, San Agustin, Dibble Decker, Terrierman, Nocte Volatus, Ginny’s Destiny, Run Supreme, Teescomponentslass, Cruz Control, Tokara, Camembert Electric and a heap of unnamed three year olds over hurdles. Johnny Burke and Tom Bellamy were here to help the usual crew with the steering.

The 2022 fixture list has an additional eight Sunday fixtures and ten Saturday fixtures. Not that anyone cares but it was Sunday racing that made me stop riding as an amateur. I wasted from Tuesday to Saturday and when Sunday racing was introduced I couldn’t hack six days fasting each week. I appreciate that weekend racing is good for everyone else but the staff who are thin on the ground in EVERY yard in the country can’t continually be asked to go that extra yard seven days a week. Have the weekend fixtures but have some blank days in the week when, at least, we can offer the staff the time back in some shape or form. Those in power need to get on the shop floor and see what is happening. They haven’t a clue and it will come back to bite them. Sometime, in the not too distant future I can see more 50/60 horse yard merging purely to staff the business. There simply is not enough staff to go around. The powers that be admit it, yet continue to drive nails in the coffin. People do not necessarily want more money, they need time to be with their friends and families so please don’t come that, “they get paid overtime line”. Things have changed, the days of the employer having the power have long since gone. No one telephones for a reference these days, they are so desperate to get a backside on a saddle anyone will do.  We are lucky but we are hanging by a thread this season and a job advert posted two weeks ago resulted in one applicant who got poor references as far as riding ability went. I was expecting to meet another yard person yesterday at 12.30 and they didn’t show up. Standard. Those staff that move from one job to the next do so for a reason and I find that we are better off without them.