Blog Sixty Four

Good Monday Morning, well Wednesday evening now.

Better late than never; here’s this weeks musings.

For a midweek thought; “This weeks been one of those weeks, where even my coffee needs a coffee!”

I’d rather be too busy than too quiet & our team has certainly had a busy week. Our beloved Mr Fayez ran at Brighton last Tuesday, he’s developing a good following and was made favourite ( surprisingly for a horse who was a maiden after 22 starts). He just missed the break and was always on the back foot & finished 6th of 9  - beaten 2 lengths without ever looking like we’d trouble the judge.

No time to dwell our bloodstock team of Luiz, Jordan & myself were off to Ireland for the Tatts Goresbridge Breeze Up Sales in the beautiful setting of County Kilkenny, Ireland. I’m a great believer in ‘ work hard, play hard ‘ and we followed that to the letter, sampling the local Guinness after viewing and celebrating our successful purchases. We came away with 2 fillies that will be useful additions to our yard.

Our first purchase for 40,000 Euros was a Zarak filly , yes that’s right ZARAK . Named Lizard Game she’s a mid April foal and we’ll probably get her on the course  in the Autumn . It shows how far we’ve come in a short time to have a Zarak in our hands so early in my training career in the UK.
We then bought an Eqtidaar filly for 11,000 Euros. This filly is bred in the purple on the dams side; the second dam Wasnah produced top class miler Bahri who himself sired the brilliant Sakhee. This filly is an early foal and will be out in the summer and she’ll be one to keep an eye on next season.
Whilst we were perfecting “ Splitting The G “ in Ireland our stable at home was been run by my right hand men John & Amedeo and their lieutenants. When you see trainers on tv talking about team work they are absolutely right; without team work in this game you can’t succeed ; we’re only as strong as our weakest link and luckily we don’t have any dead wood; unlike the relegated Leeds United whose supporter have been let down from the management down to the players who should be ashamed of themselves.

On Monday we had 2 runners at Windsor. It was a Glorious Bank Holiday Monday with a decent crowd in attendance . Faro ran in the first race over 6f in a fact finding mission to see if he’d handle the fast ground after showing his likeness for soft ground first time out for us at Donny. This run was an improvement on his last 2 efforts and we like to think we can find a race or two for him to win before the season is out.
Our other runner Ace Rothstein was having his first run for us and ran well until one out before fading and came in last. This run should be forgotten as he lost a hind shoe and is sore; we’ll learn more about him next time. Don’t worry about his ungainly head carriage that was due to feeling the ground after losing his shoe. We’ll win a race with him in his grade. Our owners and syndicate members had a thoroughly enjoyable day at Windsor - I even managed to catch up with my wife Taryn who it has to be said is the hardest working member of the whole team.

Yesterday we ran Mr Fayez at Lingfield where he so nearly got off the mark. Favourably drawn he went down by half a length after giving his all. He’s come out of his race well and is likely to go to Brighton next on Friday week.  We’ll Party Big Time when this lad eventually gets his head in front ; he deserves to win a race he gives his all time after time - that’s all we can ask for .

Tomorrow we run Alpine Springs owned by Amedeo and Federica at Yarmouth . This is her first run for us and hasn’t ran for the best part of 2 years . She’s off 49 now and won’t be disgraced ; we’ll be pleased if she’s placed after such a lengthy absence. She is to be ridden by Benoit De La Sayette who has recently lost his claim and showed what a promising talent he is at Windsor on Monday by riding a double - he’ll go far mark my words.

Epsom is fast approaching and on Derby Day we’ve got Silver Sword representing us in the Betfred Lester Piggott Handicap . What an honour to have runner in a race named after the GOAT - anybody who doubts that have a look at Lester’s Derby winners; the man was a genius and is head and shoulders ahead of any other jockey past or present. Silver is in great order and will run a big race . Could he win ? Yes of course he could ; he glided round Side Hill yesterday ; he’s well balance and I can’t see the unique challenges of Epsom bothering him. He may lack experience in the finish but this is a serious horse and we’re excited to see how good he is.

Have a good weekend everybody and lets hope the ill informed Animal Rising Group don’t disrupt the weekend - protest if they must ; we are free country after all but it would be upsetting to see horses agitated at Epsom like they were at Aintree on Grand National Day.

To close today blog; “Talent means nothing if you’re not dependable.”

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