Blog Seventy Eight

Good Monday Morning 

A thought to start the week off; “Every setback, is a setup, for a comeback…”

Living next door to Alice 

For some reason can’t get Smokie’s Classic hit out of my mind …..

We’d had a few runners under perform until Silver Sword righted the ship & put us back on course. Such downturns in form are inevitable during a long season, but what it does do is show the character of the yard. No ones head dropped -they were as chirpy as ever which is important as horses are sensitive and detect mood swings. I’ve got a Great Team here in the UK. I’m very lucky. 

The yard is absolutely buzzing after Silver Sword’s win at York last week. It was quite a rough race & Silver Sword did not escape unscathed, however, the nicks on his legs were mostly superficial -we kept them clean to avoid infection and by Tuesday he was back out and about. He went down the Town Canter on Tuesday and was back up Warren Hill Wednesday. He’s come out of his race well. I’ve not spoken to his connections yet regarding his next run. At the moment we’ve all got an open mind & we’ll bounce ideas off each other as he steps back up in his work. You may have noticed the handicapper put him up 4 pounds to 97. That’ll get him in any handicap we wish to enter this season or next before we go after some Black Type which will be greatly beneficial to his breeders who still have the mare.

I spent the first part of the week in Portugal in a lovely place called Balaia on the Algarve with my Father Luiz and my sons Ayrton and Jordan. It was a wonderful few days and special to spend quality time with my boys.  Several hours were spent discussing our business plans going forward with Luiz over a glass of red whilst taking in the spectacular sight of the Super Blue Moon ‘s light glistening on The Atlantic. 

We had a runner on Wednesday, All About Alice in the Amateur Event @ Lingfield with top amateur Fletcher Yarham in the saddle. If you’ve not seen the race watch it back & note how in a messy race Fletch had Alice in the perfect position throughout. If there’s a better amateur out there I’ve not seen him ( or her I should add in this PC world we live in ). The secret will be out with Fletch but we’ll use him whenever we can as not only is he only worth several pounds during the race his feedback is priceless. Of course not even Fletch can do it without the horse & in Alice he had a filly on top of her game. Alice travelled strongly throughout and could be called the winner well before the home turn. She seems to prefer the AW & we’ll be sticking to that for now. Ideally we’d like to run her before she is reassessed as she won’t have a penalty in most races. She’s in at Bath & Kempton this week with preference at the moment for Kempton but we’ll have a good look at the options before deciding with Alice’s owner Rachel Rennie. Alice is the first winner I’ve trained for Rachel & it meant a lot as Rachel ( who knows the game well ) was patient and had 100% faith in the yard when Alice was not running as well as expected when I first took charge of her. Owners like Rachel make my job easier as they speak the ‘same language ‘ & fully understand horses are flesh & blood not machines who run to their mark every time they face the starter. 

Thursday evening we came back to the U.K. and then on Friday, it was business as usual with a busy gallops morning followed by a day at Tattersalls. Owners Jack, Steve & Paul came along to watch their horses work with Jordan. They’d have been pleased how Havana Smoke went in company with Dirtyoldtown on the Limekilns. Havana Smoke will most likely go to Ascot on Friday. Earlier it was good to see Moliwood stretching out on The Limekilns with Clipsham Gold. It’s been a long road back for Moliwood but his owners patience will be ‘repaid in Spades .’ Clipsham will go to Southwell on Wednesday with Kyle Strydom up. 
Expressionless had a solo on The Al Bahathri & he’ll hopefully be back before the turf season closes. He’ll win decent races with ease in the ground & is a proper horse for sure. We’re losing the battle to get him ready for the Amateur Cambridgeshire where he’d have been the proverbial good thing with Fletch doing the steering. 

Another warrior shortly to return to the track will be Gold Medal. He’ll be in for a busy campaign on the AW. Jordan & John are hoping their Quest syndicate keep him over the winter, if not I’ll find an owner to keep him in the yard as he’ll win a few more for us at least.  

Confederation also had a Solo on the Al Bahathri & is spot on for Bath on Wednesday. Connor Planas takes a useful 3lbs off and it’s about time Gus won & I’d like to think this is the start of a sequence of wins for his owners - Andrew & his syndicate Catch Us If You Can Racing. 

We then had a busy day at Tattersalls on Friday after all the gallops. Jordan secured the final bid for Mart @ 11,000 Guineas and details of the syndication are on Quest’s website. Contact John or Jordan if you want to be involved and have a bit of fun this winter. 

On Saturday evening I popped over to Dublin to watch the Greyhound Derby at Sherbourne. It’s was a fantastic evening and the Greyhound’s on show were the best in the world. The prize money was out of this world, £125 000 to the winner paying all the way to £10 000 for running last. The crowd was huge and a lot of fun was had. I enjoyed meeting Shark Hanlon, a great trainer and a real character. I left Ireland super impressed as usual. 

I am so impressed with our yard running at a 20% strike rate for 2023. This is all been achieved since the Turf Season started and with no more than individual horses to run. 11 winners so far and a £100k Heritage Handicap, I can only hope that people take note and send us some more stock to work with. 

We are soon to welcome Joanne Ruffing from Weatherby’s to our team at Dylan Cunha Racing. Joanne is a star at Weatherby’s and will be a valuable asset to our office team at home as the yard grows. 

A reminder, it’s sales time, and we need your continued support and more to keep growing the yard and getting horses in over the sales season. 

In this game there is rarely time to reflect but I’m going to watch Silvers & Alice’s wins back now -  both victories excellent jobs by my team.

To close todays blog; “Rock bottom has built more champions than privilege ever did!” 

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