BLOg EiGHTY 2

Good Monday Morning

Apologies for the missing blog over the last few weeks, but it’s been a really busy time for us with the the sales in England, Ireland and France, as well as us moving completely into Phantom House Stables. This is an exciting time for us, not only moving into a really historic and famous yard, but also buying the stock that we want to go to war with from our new base. That did mean the blog had to take a back seat for a couple of weeks, however the positive that came out of that is, I’ve had so many emails and messages asking for the blog proving it’s popularity! It’s almost enjoyed enough to have its own sponsor. Food for thought for sure…

Back to the blog…

A thought; “Discipline eats motivation for breakfast! A habit missed once is a mistake, but a habit missed twice, is the start of a new habit…”

I love that thought, it’s my mindset every day.. we keep fighting as hard as we can in the premier league of world racing against all odds but are happy with the results and have to work harder than anyone else to make it, but we love it. Like a Springbok bomb squad, we are tough and push the limits daily! No matter how tough it’s been, we have remained disciplined and focused on building what is an exciting yard to be part of..

“If you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen” - this job is as taxing as any I’ve ever done. Training the horses is the easy part, but there’s so much that goes with it each and every day that is more eventful than any soap opera out there. All good fun though!

Our horses have been running really well, we’ve had 2 winners and a whole lot of places over the last 2 weeks including 4 seconds… a win or 2 more from those seconds, would make us one of the hot stables in town, however, I’m super pleased with how well our horses look and how well they are running..

Clipsham Gold ran her best race for us at Chelmsford on Tuesday when she was second in the apprentice event. This performance should be marked up as she was free early and couldn’t get any cover from her wide draw and lack of pace in the race. However, it was most encouraging to see her run on in the short straight to finish second - she’ll be winning before long.
We ran two in the nursery later on in the card namely Battleofbaltimore & Makuri . Battleofba ran a cracker considering he ran his race the wrong way round. Free as a bird early doors - He could easily capitulated when challenged 2 out, but no, he refused to lie down and plugged on for  fourth one place ahead of his stable mate. Luiz @pedigree_to_win has long been saying we’re running him over the wrong distance and he is right yet again judged by this run. Makuri ran a decent race and could well have been placed with a clear run in the straight. Not that she was unlucky. There was room for her but  as the gap closed she decided not to go through with her effort. All in all, though, it was a highly satisfactory day.

On Wednesday, @pedigree_to_win, Jordan Hopkins Bloodstock and I had a most wonderful day visiting Silver Sword and caught up with Andrea and Sophie his breeders. Silver Sword is thriving and I’m absolutely convinced he will be even better next year. Culworth Grounds is the most magnificent farm, with huge plans for the future including a new stallion El Cabello who is exciting as ever and could be the next Havana Grey. This is a farm to follow at the sales.

We were back in Chelmsford on Thursday, a long-awaited return of Moliwood. He had a niggling injury after the Cesarawitch last year and we slowly nursed him back to racing 397 days later! No, it wasn’t quite the fairytale return I’d hoped, but it was the next best thing, and he ran on a par with his Ascot Shergar Cup run for us.- don’t forget this lad hasn’t run since last year’s Cesarewitch and went straight into a 1m5f race and raced positively all the way to finish second. It’s a huge performance from our team to get him back and in this form.

Gold Medal ran in the amateur race at Newcastle on Friday with Fletch in the saddle. Though we didn’t miss the break, he was rather slow into his stride. Fletch soon got him into a rhythm, and two out he was travelling strongly. Fletch found a beautiful line as he started picking off the field one by one. Inside the last it looked well odds on he’d catch the leader Dickieburd who, to be fair stuck on gamely travelling on the favoured rail as Fletch in full flow now got the very best out of Gold Medal. I’ve just showed my lads the race back as they are aspiring jockeys & Fletch is as good as anyone to base their style on. I’m not sure if we’ll have Fletch on our team again this year as sadly All About Alice sprung a tendon at Chelmsford in her gallant run in 2nd and has been retired. A big thank you to Fletch for his help through 2023 and Good Luck to Rachael with All About Alice as a broodmare.

We decided to run Makuri again on Saturday. She ran another solid race finishing 4th. She will have a break & let her strengthen before she faces the starter again in the spring.

Ace Rothstein is our first runner in the National Hunt sphere on today at Kempton. I enjoyed visiting Cheltenham during their festival earlier this year in March and would love to have a runner there one day. Ace is in good form and has been schooling well.

Cerulean Summer had a choice of engagements, and we decided to drop her back over 6F at Wolverhampton today. She’ll likely be favourite and should run well.

Here’s hoping Confederation finally gets his head in front for the patient Andrew and our Catch Us If You Can Syndicate at Kempton on Wednesday. He’s off 60 now & will win off that sooner or later.

Mart goes to Newcastle on Friday off his new mark and will go close unless something is well in. He’s in good form at home.

Hello Miss Lady has a speculative entry at Wolverhampton over the extended mile within the hour of Mart’s race. She’ll be a different proposition to her debut run for sure.

Havana Smoke runs at Wolves 24 hours later. The handicapper has hardly done him any favours - he’s off 68. Like all our babies though he’s a work in progress & is improving. I’m hoping he will be a decent horse next year.

Getting back to the past few weeks we’ve missed, Mart won a good race at Lingfield and Dirtyoldtown won well at Newmarket giving us our first HQ winner which means so much as we train here and it’s not a easy place to win races. We are really proud of the team this year, from winning races at York, Newmarket, Chester, Epsom etc to winning ITV and Saturday races as well as being Group placed with our only Group runner, for a small but growing yard. We also lead the % at Lingfield for trainers with 5 winners from 11 runners there this year.. small victories. We have run at the more festivals and won a £100k Heritage Handicap this year. We don’t have the numbers going through the door so we have literally squeezed the lemon dry, carefully selecting and planning the same horses all year. One example is Faro who started at Doncaster at the first turf meeting and finished at Newmarket at the last turf meeting having run 12 times at major tracks including a lovely Chester Saturday win. It’s been some year for the team and we are so excited about next year and the future..

Talking of the future, we have some shares available in our pedigree man @pedigree_to_win and myself with @Jordan Hopkins Bloodstock’s premier selection of yearlings, from top bloodlines and farms… some of these are in our current syndicate Catch Us If You Can Racing and Quest Thoroughbreds, and we are about to launch a new Phantom House Racing Syndicate to add a different dimension. We also have sole ownership options alongside partnerships. Get in touch, we need your support to keep this all going and we are confident and excited about where we are heading!

We have worked so hard as a team this year and I’m proud to say that we have a caring hard working team that put 200% into the yard and it’s showing. From nothing 12 months ago to an exciting team to be part of now…

To close this weeks blog, a thought until next time; “You are the only person who can give yourself what you want!”

Stay updated daily following our social media and check back next Monday for another blog