30th March 2020

Typical Monday morning canters for the horses, Monday didn’t seem to come around quite as quickly as normal. Many horses bobbing away are waiting for the warmer weather and grass to grow. Others are waiting for fencing contactors or the likes of but the reality is horses will be leaving in their droves this week. Flashing Glance, Fair Kate, Kateson and Outlaw Jesses James were all taken home this morning. Adrimel, Quick Draw and two unnamed four year olds will head back to Daylesford tomorrow.

It probably isn’t the time to be spending money but things have to be maintained. The diggers are back, they will start by turning the sand gallop, this time replacing the membrane in order to aid the drainage best we can. We dug and fenced a deep open drain around the high side of it during the winter and it should never have to cope with the amount of rain it has over the last 12 months. I have ordered a four-inch top up of woodchip for the hill gallop. If we can time it all to happen whilst the diggers are on site, it will be a bonus. I am a big believer that the gallops and those riding up them are everything. If the surfaces aren’t maintained fracture rates increase considerably. We also have some ditching to do before sending the diggers packing until the next time. 

Any National Hunt trainer heard to be complaining needs to have a chat with themselves, we have got off incredibly lightly in this world wide crisis and hopefully, we should be somewhere near normality by the end of June when the horses start to come back in.