- Monday, 11 August 2014 06:53
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
Garden Party
Today we have flat cards at Ayr, Thirsk, Windsor and Wolverhampton. We have had a lot of rain around the country so the going could change so watch out for that if you are having a bet. We had 160 owners and friends at the yard on Saturday for a garden party. Quite a few arrived late due to the bad traffic on the M5 and they had horrendous journey's. Stuart Mercer was about 5 hours getting here from Manchester. He was however looking very smart having lost a lot of weight - I thought he looked quite like a small deck chair actually in his stripey shirt! Only joking Stuart! He tells me he has got back his Man Utd seats. He likes the new manager and signings. We also had three well known authors in attendance, Jilly Cooper, Hilary Bonner and yours truly! It was a good day with good food and the weather stayed fine. During the afternoon, Terry Neill who was here had a winner at Clairefontaine which we watched to the television. Another winner on the afternoon was for another of our owners in attendance, Peter Deal who had a nice win at Newmarket. At one time there were so many dogs running around but it was a lovely afternoon well organised by MCP and Carol.
- Sunday, 10 August 2014 00:00
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
Day seven of our summer sabbatical and there are just two meetings taking place this afternoon on the flat at Windsor and Leicester. Having said that, there is an excellent fixture over in Ireland at the Curragh with a Group 1 and Group 3 race on the card. The Phoenix Stakes takes place over six furlongs and is worth £200,000 in prize money so it is a little surprising that only Richard Hughes and Jamie Spencer have made the trip across. At least we can look forward to some jump racing next week - we have Newton Abbot on Wednesday and David has six horses entered up!
- Saturday, 09 August 2014 06:44
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
It's day six of our summer sabbatical and thankfully it is now nearing it's end. Even so, there is plenty to keep us entertained this afternoon with six meetings on the level from Ascot, Ayr, Haydock, Lingfield, Newmarket and Redcar. The big meeting of the day is at Ascot as they host the Shergar Cup meeting - it is always interesting to see how all the international jockeys fare against each other in a competition like this, let's hope that it draws a big crowd to the Berkshire course. Meanwhile, former champion jockey and current title leader Ryan Moore travels to Haydock for a strong book of six rides and I would imagine there is a winner or two among them. Indeed, William Buick, Kieren Fallon and Joe Fanning all have mounts at the track.
- Friday, 08 August 2014 06:34
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
Day five of our summer sabbatical and there are five meetings on the level to keep us entertained. They are from Musselburgh, Brighton, Lingfield, Newmarket and Haydock - once again there is an excellent piece of race planning with Lingfield and Brighton within relatively close proximity of each other. Am I the only one to see these glaringly obvious errors? Surely we should be looking to cast our net far and wide to attract the biggest audience to our sport...or am I missing something?
- Thursday, 07 August 2014 06:40
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
Day four of our summer sabbatical and this afternoon we have six meetings to look forward to from Brighton, Haydock, Yarmouth, Sandown, Newcastle and Southwell. Today's wooden spoon goes to Southwell who have just £28,000 in prize money for their seven race card. To further highlight the difference between the two countries, over in Ireland Leopardstown are putting up £134,000 in prize money while even their jumps card at Sligo is worth £75,000. If you finish fourth at Southwell this afternoon the owners can expect to pick up the princely sum £144...I don't think that will cover too many people's expenses!
- Wednesday, 06 August 2014 06:45
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
Well, it's now day three of our summer sabbatical and I am now desperately missing my jumps action. There are four meetings taking place on the level from Brighton, Kempton, Pontefract and Yarmouth and while there are a few competitive handicaps it isn't exactly an inspiring days racing. That is especially true at Yarmouth where the biggest field boasts eight runners - hardly surprising when you consider there is barely £30,000 in prize money on offer across their seven race card. Over in Ireland there is almost £80,000 on offer at Sligo...perhaps we could learn from the Irish model, less racing and more prize money? Still, it is a big day tomorrow as entries close for the jumps meeting at Newton Abbot (pictured above) next Wednesday - I can't wait!
- Tuesday, 05 August 2014 06:50
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
David broke the news in his column yesterday that conditional jockey Kieron Edgar (pictured above winning at Cheltenham aboard Home Run) has been cleared to ride again by Dr Turner following a nasty fall at Newbury on 1st March which left him with his femur fractured in three places. Talk about a tease, I'm sure the young Scottish jockey is deseperate to get back into the saddle but he was cleared on the first day of the summer break, meaning that his first opportunity to race ride will not be until a week on Wednesday at the very earliest...how tantalising is that?! Anyway, it will be good to have him back in the saddle, Kieron is good value for his 5lbs claim so let's hope that he is able to carry on where he left off and he picks up a few outside rides. Last season was his best yet with 12 winners until the campaign was brought to it's premature end.
