blog eighty 4
Good Monday Evening
To start the week off, a thought; “If you set your goals ridiculously high and it’s a failure, you will fail above everyone else’s success..”
“Nine Bob short of a 10 Bob note” is a new one to me… I heard that the other day and on reflection - love it!
Ace Rothstein kicked off the week for us at Kempton. He jumped ok and got around but didn’t enjoy the pace and pressure early on and will be back. He was our first runner over hurdles and I was happy to see him get around and complete the course as he is not an easy horse and needs things to go his way.
Cerulean Summer ran at Wolves a few hours later. Although I couldn’t be disappointed with her effort, I was left slightly deflated as I thought she’d put this field to bed. Though only beaten half a length, another second in a week where we had 5 seconds didn’t go down well. The family improves with age and there is no reason why she won’t follow that trend next season and beyond and turn out a half decent filly for us.
I was in a foul mood on Tuesday not because of Cerulean Summer not winning as I expected, but more so that Gold Medal has gone up 2 pounds for running second at Newcastle the other day. The handicapping system in the UK is ludicrous and actually encourages connections to not run their horses to their full merit. Getting punished for trying and running second is so frustrating, as the costs of keeping a horse versus prize money are so poor, so get get penalized for not winning, hurts deeply! The powers that be will be well aware of this, but the solution is not easy but here’s an idea. As now horses would run in maidens & novices but instead of then going down the handicap route do away with the run of the mill handicaps and let’s have more claiming races where the connections of the horse basically handicap their horse. After running in three such open claimers you’d then be eligible to enter optional claimers & will be ‘handicapped ‘off the highest claim your horse has ran under.( after which connections can adjust the claim price in subsequent runs) . Rather than penalties for winners( apart from entries already made - you would have a ‘follow up with a pen’) , horses winning or going close would have to have their claim adjusted or be open to leaving the yard. If the horses changes connections; that is owner or trainer, they have to start from scratch again. We would of course still keep the great historical handicaps such as The Ebor & indeed because the prize money in the U.K. is so low claimers in the UK would only work up to a certain mark. I’ll say what 85 or 90 otherwise the Australian Bloodstock agents will be having a field day on long-distance claimers. It’s just a thought perhaps you think it is as ludicrous as the present system. The Black type races would still be the zenith of the game; though it could be argued that the Pattern needs slimming down - that’s for another day!
Whilst on the subject of Racing politics it is taking a hell of a long time to get the hundred thousand signatures required for affordability checks. If anybody does read this Blog ( well actually I know there’s a few because of the correspondence I receive ), then if you haven’t already signed up then please do so or racing in the U.K. will go down the pan as quickly as I witnessed in South Africa. If the magic figure of 100,000 is reached the petition is considered for debate in Parliament. The current figure is about 85,000 .
On Wednesday the ever loyal Andrew O’Connor and the Catch Us If You Can team of owners went to Kempton to hopefully shout home the first winner for Catch Us If You Can Racing with Confederation. Unfortunately things didn’t go his way and he will be back soon. One worth following as his mark drops. Costly to follow but he will bounce back to form soon.
No runners on Thursday though I only managed to catch a little of the Cricket WC semi versus Oz. We started badly & though my mate David Miller batted valiantly for a Century it wasn’t enough against the decent Oz side. We unfortunately choked again as we do in the cricket.
Whilst the cricket was on the BHA were inspecting our stable; I’m pleased to say we passed with flying colours and are now fully licensed out of the whole yard at Phantom House Stables.
Mart travelled up to Newcastle on Thursday with Mae & Brae. Mart was drawn in 1 and Kieran O’Neill quickly to advantage of no pace near him & moved gradually over to join the stands side leaders. From then on the result never looked in doubt & he won cosily enough. Thankfully that ended our streak of going close time after time -we’ve had 5 seconds since our last winner just under 2 weeks ago. Colin ‘Rowley ’ Bradnam and his better half Jenny are both enthusiastic owners made the journey to Newcastle from HQ and had a thoroughly enjoyable day at the races despite the weather. Colin and Jenny are big supporters of the yard & have had 2 winning horses of 4 races (with Quest ) after several largely unsuccessful years elsewhere. They were interviewed on SKY by Bob Cooper and their enthusiasm shone through brightly. Contact Jordan or John for Quest or Andrew who runs Catch Us if U fancy joining the likes of Colin & Jenny in our stable.
Expressionless ran a fair race over 10f on Saturday. I put cheekpieces on him @ Lingfield and it seemed to help. He was beaten about 6 lengths in a hot handicap won by Simon Pearce’s Storm Catcher - winning his 5th race in under 12 months & going up the handicap about 20 pounds in the process.
Havana Smoke was expected to add to our winners tally but was disappointing at Wolverhampton. He was badly drawn but that was too bad to be true. He may have another crack at it once more before a winter break.
Jordan and myself alongside our secretary Joanne, will be setting up another syndicate shortly, called Phantom House Racing. Basically we want different types of syndicates to suit our clients requirements & pockets. Jordan works tirelessly to bring in new owners to the yard. We have some lovely horses earmarked for Phantom House Racing, so get in touch.
Running plans are fluid this week but one runner we have not to be missed is Clipsham Gold on Tuesday @ Chelmsford. The race looks set up for her & I will be disappointed if she doesn’t win.
Mart is a possible on Friday if I’m happy with him early this week after seeing what the handicapper does on Tuesday.
Our horses have settled into Phantom House Stables so well and we welcome you to visit us and join the yard as we grow into the future.
To close todays blog; “The magic you are looking for, is in the work you are avoiding!”
Stay updated daily following our social media and check back next Monday for another blog