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Friday 28th April 2006
Pictured below is our hero of the hour, The Bonus King (Fred). Given a very confident ride by Jamie Spencer, Fred won well today at Wolverhampton for owners Mrs Mo Done and Mrs Janet Martin. The lads are going to wait until Monday for for their champagne as first lot tomorrow includes Tidal Fury's last piece of work before the Group 2 Prix Amadou on 7th May. So Elegant who will join him on the gallop, is nearly at race fitness and should be seen on the track in the next couple of weeks. She won 4 races for her syndicate owners "The Prospectors" last year and we expect more of the same from her this year.Bill Bennett thinks he is a yearling again and is full of mischief on the heath. Carlton Scroop's near fore has swollen up after his 3rd place at Southwell and our vet is giving him daily injections of antibiotics to reduce the filling. There is no lameness and all his tendons etc. are fine. John Dixon visited today to watch Tidal Fury on Long Hill and the Efisio 2-y-o colt on Warren Hill. Gaelic Roulette had a normal canter ahead of her run tomorrow at Market Rasen. She won there first time out over hurdles and is in fine form. She benefits from a succession of quick runs and we also plan to run her on the 2nd May at Wolverhampton on the flat over 1m6f. 
Thursday 27th April 2006
Esthlos (pictured below) moved up to Warren Place and will soon start back in training. His fractured cannon bone has healed exceptionally well. Most of the yard had a single canter on Warren Hill. Tuesday's runners (Skye Boat Song and Carlton Scroop) went for a long walk and trot.Refurbishment work at the Jonathan Jay Racing yard has started. The yard was built in the 1820's and retains many original features such as its original gas lamps, ventilation tubes and balustrades rising from the petitions between the boxes. Lydia Minahan in her book Racing Town describes the yard: "To enter the Jonathan Jay Racing yard is like going through a drawbridge into an inner keep, castle-like a little bastion in the centre of Newmarket". The yard was home for Stockwell, one of the 19th Century's most famous racehorses (and stallions) and also the 1884 Derby winner St Gatien. It is now looking a little tired and throughout the course of the year all the boxes will be brought up to scratch. 
Wednesday 26th April 2006
After two days on the road (Pontefract and Wolverhampton) its a relief to have a day in the yard. Timeform sent a photographer to picture Tidal Fury for their end of season publication. Skye Boat Song must feel like a Derby winner after the fuss the staff made of him after coming 3rd at Wolverhampton yesterday (beaten only a length). He really put his head down and tried his best and thats all that matters to the lads. As he went off as a 40-1 outsider it was our each-way punting owners who gave the loudest cheer of the day at the track when the photo-finish for third was announced in our favour. Carlton Scroop came home battered and blooded from his 3rd place at Southwell. He has a particularly nasty gash between his eyes but is as tough as they come and I get the feeling he will wear his scar with pride! Julian Wilson visited this morning to see our Efisio 2-y-o colt that he bred and has retained a share in (pictured below). Efisio has long been on of my favourite sires and our un-named colt looks on course to add to his father long list of winners. We have just two 20% shares in him remaining so please contact me if interested as we could do with naming him soon. 
Tuesday 25th April 2006
Is this the face of a reformed character Carlton Scroop travels to Southwell's turf track today in top form but with a question mark against his behaviour. A winner last time out at Kempton, on his last visit to Southwell he refused to enter the stalls. He will be saddled at the racecourse stables as he refuses to enter the saddling boxes at the track. At Wolverhampton we have Skye Boat Song entering the "last chance saloon" in a dire banded race. A good run will save his racing career but probably not his future love life as a gelding operation is on the cards. 
Monday 24th April 2006
The Bonus King puts in another good run at Pontefract and would have finished at least placed if not forced to run wide and without cover for most of the race. While Pontefract is one of my favourite racecourses it is one of the worst lead ups for the stable lads. The racecourse stables are situated away from the track - across a golf course, over a steep grass hill and a busy road. If the owners and trainers carpark was situated in the same location there would be an outcry.
Saturday 22nd April 2006
Much of the work we do at home with the horses revolves around their mental fitness as much as their physical fitness. We aim to create a bond between ourselves and the horses so that they trust us and will respond when we ask them to do things that they would not naturally would do. For example, as a herd animal a horse's instinct is to be in the safest place within any group of horses - normally in the centre of the pack. When racing we are asking them to go against their instincts when we hold them up last (the most dangerous place in a herd) or ask them to accelerate away from the safety of the group. We try to establish this bond from the day the horse arrives at the yard. In the picture below Nigel is in our lunge pit with Elli Lewtia. Everywhere he walks the filly follows as if on an invisible lead rope. We do not try to dominate the horses and bend them to our will but rather get the horses to act in unison with us as part of a team.
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