Blog Forty-Two Monday 26/12/22
Good Monday Morning
Merry Christmas to all of you.
To start todays blog, a thought as always; “what the new year brings to you will depend a great deal on what you bring to the new year!”
It’s been a fantastic time at the yard with all the staff thankfully being so dedicated to their horses and our greater dream as a team, and everyone turning in over the festive period to keep it all going. Thank You Adam, Arabella, Jacob, Cat, Luiz in the office and everyone who has contributed and helped. Our horses have had a lovely winter break and they have one more week of it and then things get serious and the build up into the 2023 season begins. The youngsters have been busy though, learning the ropes and skill of becoming a racehorse, it’s a lovely time of the year, full of dreams!
We go into the week of reflection this week, looking back on the past year and planning the next year to make sure it’s a successful one for us all. This past year has been some rollercoaster ride for us, we started off in a new country not knowing anyone in March, with 3 horses we paid £2k, £5k & £10k and had to grovel it alone to begin. In reflection, considering where we began and with what, it’s was a really positive first year for us, we had many small victories along the way, have met some fantastic people and built up a really good team of staff, owners, friends, helpers, followers, and young horses to go to war with.
Mr Fayez did us proud running many good races this year and earned double his purchase price, Expressionless did really well and is worth way more than his purchase price and will be a horse to follow next year after and good break, Silver Sword after starting off with his antics showed he is really smart and anyone following his form-lines, will realise that he is a serious horse for us next year and is also worth way more than his purchase price. So, in short the 3 horses we started with, have done really well considering what we are up against. We are in the premier league of racing at the worlds headquarters of racing and held our own if you look at it in reality. Amedeo & Federica Del Pos then joined us with Mighty Mind and he provided us our first winner but also lots of love and fun with a horse. We have the most lovable and cherished memories with Mighty Mind and Amedeo and Federica continue to have a horse with us with more to come in the future, another great relationship and friendship built in the UK. We then were really lucky to have the Sarkar Family support us with Moliwood, who undoubtedly provided us with our best performance this year, running a close up 4th in the Shergar Cup Stayers at Ascot in August. Considering we only started in March, this was HUGE for us and a fantastic day for the yard. Moliwood also went on to run really well in the Cesarawitch, another huge coup for us to even just be in this race in our first season. Moliwood is also resting and will be back a stayer to follow later next year. The Sarkar family has also become good friends and have repurchased a yearling with us and we’ve built another great relationship with the family. Syndication came later in the year as we realized we weren’t going to get much more support if we didn’t do it ourselves, so we took this up and have created to fantastic syndicates, who between them already own 10 horses in our yard, 95% all sold out. This was a great move and has been loads of fun. We have met the most wonderful people and we are in for a lot of fun with all the members in 2022. Our open door policy in the yard, meaning owners are welcome 7 days a week has proved really popular and we continue to change the way syndicates are run and provide the most magnificent experience for the owner. Not only have we filled the syndicates up, but we have become friends with everyone. It’s so much fun and such a privilege to train for everyone. Catch Us If You Can Racing is supremely run by Andrew O’Connor and Quest Racing is supremely run by Jordan Hopkins. Both syndicates have one priority, and that is their clients, they look after them better than anyone could imagine and our meetings are all about enhancing the ownership experience. Our horses are all selected by Luiz Cunha Pedigree To Win along with the team and no pedigree page goes without thorough research. Every horse is carefully selected, valued and purchased below valuation. We have some amazing friends and advisors in the background as well, behind the team, ensuring that we are navigating our correct course.
In summary, it hasn’t been all that bad this year and we are excited for 2023. We’ve run in Shergar Cups, Cesarawitch, £100k Tattersalls Sales Races, Future Champions Day at Newmarket, all with a handful of horses in year one. We’ve had Josephine Gordon, Darragh Keenan, Dylan Hogan, Harry Burns, Kieran Shoemark, Jason Watson, Laura Pearson, Hollie Doyle, Abbie Pierce, Christian Howarth, Connor Beasley, Paddy Barlow, Grace Mc Entee, Alice Bond, Luke Morris, all ride so well for us and we look forward to using them all in the future as well. Lastly but most importantly, throughout this year we’ve continued to grow and build a great team led by Adam throughout the year and we honestly have so much fun as a yard and work so well together.
The facilities we have at Newmarket are honestly the worlds greatest facilities for a racehorse. It’s no coincidence that Frankel and Baeed were trained here never mind Enable and Stradivarius who raced soundly for so many years. You want to have your horse trained in Newmarket, there is no place like it!
Today we have the King George and I think Envoi Allen is serious value at 13/2. It’s one of my favourite races and can’t wait to watch it, but first, Constitution Hill, wow, I’m sure the whole racing world will be tuning in to see this freak of a horse run. Can’t wait..
I hope you all had a wonderful last few days and I JUST WANT TO THANK YOU ALL, whoever is reading this, all your interaction and support has not gone unnoticed and is very much appreciated and I’m so thankful.
To close today, in the words of Frank Sinatra; “the best is yet to come!”
Stay updated daily following our social media and check back next Monday for the new year blog.