Blog Ten - Monday 09/05/2022
Good Morning…another Monday into the turf season and the weather is magically playing it’s part. As always a quote to start; don’t downgrade your dreams just to fit your reality. Upgrade your conviction to match your destiny!
Our horses are coming along nicely, with only 4 horses, it’s not easy, especially waiting to have more runners, but I am happy where they are. Mr Fayez who had his first run and finished 5th is not far off another run and has improved. He went up the Watered Gallop on Saturday and I was happy with him. I’ve gelded our two mischievous two year old colts Expressionless and Silver Sword and they took that well, so hopefully won’t be much longer before stepping them out as well. Expressionless’s sister won in France yesterday and heads for a Listed race next. I am hoping we get a little more support in the UK and grow our yard and we can be racing more..
Rich Strike winning the Kentucky Derby on Saturday was a dream come true for his small trainer and team….it just shows that horsemanship doesn’t equal money and there are many top horseman grinding it out everywhere - without support. A great result and also one for the breeders who support first season sires. The game is much more exciting when horses are spread around and the competition is fierce. It’s fairly boring watching small fields with the same handful racing against each other, never mind it being extremely bad for betting turn over which pays prize money.
Flooring Porter winning at Cheltenham is a great example of this, throughout the week and weeks after, he was by far the most popular winner on Social Media and a great story but not much was made of it from racing’s side. I say listen to the customer, they want great stories and fairytales as much as champions. There is space for everyone to be included, so make space and acknowledge everyone.
Scary times in British racing, where there is talk of cutting 300 races. My experience from a racing jurisdiction that has been through this in South Africa, and a airline that tried this and went under, is that you can’t shrink yourself to profit. There are more aggressive ways to deal with this and bigger changes that need making, but I am not so sure anyone has the appetite for this. Hopefully someone does. There are lots of changes I can see that would have an immediate impact on turning things, but I can imagine a few toes would have to be stood on first. No one is bigger than the game and we should all work to make it great and keep British racing at the top and get prize money to a level it should be at. The Kentucky Derby went down just fine, even without Bob Baffert, that is the thing with racing..it goes on with or without you. I personally hope that they don’t cut the races but make changes that would ensure bigger fields and more turnover which in turn better prize money. Negative moves, just create negative results. Racing needs to make positive aggressive changes for positive results. It’s a great debate and I talk from having seen it before, and my views are just personal ones and I would love more debate and interaction in this regard.
Newmarket is looking amazing and all the flowers are blossoming and the warmer days with sunshine on the horses back are with us. There is something different about the British green, it seems greener than green and it’s truly stunning. I couldn’t believe the backdrop to the attheraces tv crew at Windsor last Monday. It almost looked like a perfect painting. Truly blessed to be living in such a beautiful place. Our horses take daily walks though the woods and the scenery is out of this world. It really is something everyone has to come and see at least once. Watching the Newmarket cricket team playing on The Severals with Warren Hill in the distance, you just can’t beat Newmarket in the Summer!
We are looking for horses in training and support at the sales and I say, come and join us on the gallops or at the yard and experience ownership with us. Come racing with us, enjoy stable braai’s or as you call them BBQ’s with us. We are aiming at upgrading the quality of horses all the time and want to race at the festivals and in the big races. Join us and let’s take it to the next level.
The Derby & Oaks trials have been really interesting this week, and after the Dante I’ll give my prediction for the both races. It’s truly an exciting time of the year with Royal Ascot following just after the Derby. I hope I manage to find time to get to these big meeting between all the work at the yard.
And I leave you with this thought; don’t focus on the pain, focus on the progress!
Until next week, stay updated daily following our social media!