Blog Eighty
Good Monday Morning
To open todays blog, a thought as always; “Life consists in not holding good cards, but, in playing those you hold well!”
We are hoping to make an exciting announcement in the next few weeks, as we grow our yard and build our own identity in the UK. Look out for this on our social media.
Bloomsfield’s Raceline are soon to be partnering with us as we both grow our brands together. The best thing we’ve done so far is purchase a horsebox from them to travel our winners to and from racing and we look forward to partnering into the future with them.
I’m getting lots of questions regarding Silver Sword in the Cambridgeshire. I’d say he’s most likely to run on Wednesday at Sandown (ground dependent) and not the Cambridgeshire, but he is left in there as the forecast is ever changing this week. Read more below, but for those asking, I’m very much not wanting to run him at HQ as I have always had 2024 in mind for Silver Sword and I think the Cambridgeshire might be a hard race for him at this early stage of his career..
Hopkins Bloodstock
Jordan has long planned to purchase horses from across the Channel with the intention of taking advantage of the generous owners’ premiums in France. Charlotte’s Luck will be the guinea pig for us when she makes her debut in early October in a newcomers event @ Saint-Cloud. Travelling horses abroad here in the U.K. is easier than back home & for a starter the distances are far less over here & the infrastructure in the U.K. is superior. Charlotte’s Luck has done nothing but please -she’d come to hand earlier than expected & was working on the Al Bahathri from early August. We took Charlotte’s Luck to Chelmsford on Friday & it’s all systems go for France. Jordan’s not afraid to shoot for the stars & he’s after ‘Super Soumi‘ to ride her. Jordan by the way was busy buying this week at an online sale. He bought Asgard’s Captain for well under his maximum bid & Jordan is eying up races over hurdles & on the all weather for him. Get in touch with him if you fancy a share under both codes as there’s shares available.
On Friday we took 4 horses to work @ Chelmsford . Moliwood & three of our 2yo’s nearing their debuts. Educating 2yo’s before they run is something I liked to do back in South Africa, they enjoy the day away & it is a stress free environment. It helps put the babies minds on racing.
They worked over a 7F. Amedeo set a perfect pace on Moliwood with Robbo on Cerulean Summer alongside Harry Burns on Charlotte’s Luck close up & Gavin on Goggins following his stable mates. Swinging into the home bend Amedeo left enough room on his inner for Robbo & Harry to take it up if they were good enough. Gavin was asking Goggins to join Moliwood but Goggins failed to pick up even when Gavin asked for maximum effort as he is about 4 weeks behind these. Cerulean Summer had the edge over Charlotte’s Luck at the line & I was also delighted with Moliwood who showed he still retains plenty of ability. As for the fillies they’ll both run on the 5th October. Charlottes booked her ticket to France & after speaking to Robbo we’ll run Cerulean Summer back at Chelmsford over 7 on the same day. The away day @ Chelmsford was a very worthwhile exercise though on the face of it Goggins performance or lack of it could be viewed as disappointing but it was not as bad as it looked on face value - the others are ahead of him & he was blowing hard after his work. He’ll come on a lot. He is our best 2yo colt & our best filly would be the Gleneagles chesnut filly out of the Champs Elysees mare Luminous named Hello Miss Lady, we think! I’ve always rated her highly though she’s not the soundest and won’t be a regular on the track. If we can keep her sound for long enough though she’ll win a decent prize. I’m looking for a Band D fillies maiden over 7F but my race planner tells me there’s no such event until mid November @ Chelmsford. Surely that can’t be right?
Our horses are thriving at the moment & look as well as they have all year so we’re expecting a good finish to the season. We have worked really hard behind the scenes on all the horses and they seem to all be in great form back home.
I decided not to run Clipsham Gold at Kempton tomorrow ( Monday ) but wait for a race at Lingfield over 10 next Tuesday: she’s also in a race @ Kempton on Friday over 11 which I’ll look at before making a final decision. She’s ready for a step up in distance & will go well wherever she runs.
Our first intended runner this week is Silver Sword in the Listed Fortune Stakes on Wednesday @ Sandown. I’m watching every weather forecast there is at the moment in the hope of finding one that predicts a dry start to the week @ Sandown ; I’m still looking :-( On the plus side it means Andrew Cooper won’t be watering. They raced at Sandown on Friday & it looked good ground which was backed up by the times. Even if it didn’t rain we wouldn’t get the good to firm ground that would see Silver at his best - Sandown will have some rain before Wednesday & the heavy dews this time of year will see to that. We’ve not made the mistake of ‘pigeon holing ‘ Silver into a group that Must have fast ground ( let’s face it if we did he’d never run given the amount of watering courses in the U.K. are given ). The atrocious conditions at Goodwood found him out - he just wasn’t strong enough to pick up when asked. He’s stronger now & will handle ground on the easy side but he’ll always be best on proper racing ground for flat horses i.e good to firm. We’re really looking forward to seeing how Silver copes with the step up in class. I expect to see him travel well within himself as at York & then we go into the unknown when Greg asks him to pick up sometime around the furlong marker against these Black Type performers. On figures he’s no chance but races aren’t run on figures this Lad is better than a 97 rated horse - time will prove me right on that regardless of what happens on Wednesday. One of the prime reasons we’re running here instead of another Heritage Handicap is to pick up Black Type as the Breeders ( Andrea Brereton and Sophie Buckley of Culworth Grounds ) are lucky enough to still have the mare Aurora Gray. Not that my hand was forced in anyway to run in a Listed race - we debated long & hard over where to go & all options were open. The Fortune isn’t the ‘be & end all ‘ whatever happens we’ve a proper horse for next season. First though we’ve to get him to Sandown, there’s never a race where he doesn’t do something to try & get out of running. On Saturday evening he pulled a shoe off, luckily it came off clean & no damage done. We’ve had the farrier in early on Sunday morning & he now has his racing plates on ready for Wednesday ( normally they’d have been put on 48 hours before racing ). Let’s hope that’s the only scare this week & Silver lines up & takes his chance.
Our pedigree man @pedigree_to_win Luiz Cunha has been busy studying the catalogues day in and day out. We will be at Goffs Premier Sale in Ireland next week and then at Tattersalls all of October. @pedigree_to_win has always had the deep in-depth pedigree knowledge to find those gems at the sale that a lot of people miss. To think we started with Mr Fayez £2k, Silver Sword £11k and Expressionless £5k, these 3 have won 7 races this year and haven’t stopped yet including a £100k Heritage Handicap. That is some selecting horses and finding value and I hope your support comes as we push harder into the future. Get your orders in with us. We are always looking for that next big horse and the homework is already being done. You won’t go wrong following @pedigree_to_win at the Yearling Sales.
The Springboks have started the World Cup off flying and I’m really confident of them going all the way. We have won 2-2 and face Ireland this weekend which will be like a final in the group stages. I’m sure I can round a few saffas around HQ up for a braai to watch the game the night before the Open Day….
We are open this coming Sunday 24th for the Henry Cecil Open Day, so please make sure you follow the green route and find time to visit us and meet Silver Sword and the rest of the team as well.
To close today, I leave you with this; “Never beg for a seat at a table, when you can build your own table!”
Stay updated daily following our social media and check back next Monday for another blog.