Monday 5th May

What a weekend… First things first, Jack Wilmot rode his first Cheltenham winner on Friday night aboard the Martin Keighley trained Hung Jury. Jack is full time here and hasn’t had the smoothest season so it was a monumental day for him on Friday and we are all over the moon for him! The hunter chase evening at Cheltenham is huge night for Amateur jockeys and is viewed as the championship evening for point to pointers and hunter chasers. Jack is a very talented young rider and hopefully showing off his talents on a 20/1 shot at cheltenham will lead to more opportunities for him.

We had 1 runner which didn’t go quite so smoothly… Au Fleuron ran in the 4 miler with Aimee Jones. He got a good start but coming down the hill, he rather uncharacteristically took off with Aimee and coming past the stands, crossed his jaw, hung badly right and jumped the rails towards the best mate enclosure, unseated Ainee before having a jolly loose around cheltenham. Luckily Aimee and Au Fleuron retuned safe and sound and we will go back to the drawing board with him.

Cheltenham did a tremendous job of looking after owners, trainers, jockeys and stable staff. Au Fleuron won best turned out and the groom got £150!

Moving on, we have a few runners this week…

Head Over Hinds runs at Worcester on Tuesday evening. His second run over fences and will hopefully show more than he did at Hereford last time. Liam Harrison rides

Rockadenn also heads to worcester and hopes to go one better than last time where he was 2nd at Southwell. David Bass rides.

Land Girls Luck runs in the lucky last at Worcester. A step up in grade but Jack claims a valuable 7lbs off her which should help.

Goodbye Mick is also entered at Stratford Thursday.

A few new horses are also arriving this week… Lunar Morning, A Great Excuse, And Still I Rise and Bebside Banter.

We bought Bebside Banter on Thoroughbid last week. Thoroughbid is an online auction. They do a great job and i’m sure their sales will become increasingly more popular over the next few years. We have pulled together a new syndicate for Bebside Banter full of great people and currently have 1 share remaining. Get in touch if your’e interested in getting involved in a fun summer horse.

We had a lovely night with the cotswold stars syndicate on Thursday evening down The Plough In Ford celebrating Boss Man Freds 2 wins last season and to make plans for his future. After plenty of laughter, drinks and lovely food, we decided to retire Fred after such a brilliant season. He’s been a tremendous horse for Dan Skelton previously and with us the last 3 years, he owes us nothing and will have a brilliant retirement with Abbie Batson in Dorset. Louis Gill called me up 3 years ago saying he found a cracking horse, but he has done a touch of a leg. We nursed him back to full health, popped him in a little syndicate and had some great days with him ther last 2 seasons. He won 3 races for us, including the prestigious lord ashton cup, and retires in one piece.

Finally, Andy Catlin was in touch yesterday to promote his debut novel, Odds and Sods. A racing based crime drama set in Newmarket which is currently available to purchase on Amazon. 10% of all book purcheses go towards the injured jockeys fund which we all know is a fantastic charity that deserves every penny. We wish Andy the best of luck with his new novel.

Have a great week,

Max