Saturday morning gallops
With a few youngsters coming back into the yard to pick up on their education and a couple of horses having raced the previous day, Saturday morning was a bit of a mixed bag.
In Lot 1, Onecallaway and Stainsby Girl did a couple of spins 'Up-the-Middle', completing a nice piece of work second time. Onecallaway didn't run well on her debut in a bumper at the start of February but she shows enough at home to suggest that she may not have been 100% that day. She'll be given another chance to shine in the next couple of weeks.
A couple of youngsters had a gentle canter prior to their work being stepped up in the next week or so - our Durban Thunder filly and Rob Bewley's Arcadio gelding. You may remember that both were Tatts Ire August Sales acquisitions last year.
Lot 2 was 6 in number with Dali
Mail, Paper Roses,
Baby Ticker,
The Boo Box,
Big Bad Dream and
Keyboard Gangster.
Of this sextet, Keyboard Gangster and Paper Roses worked at a nice pace
second time up.
The Boo Box (Rebecca) leads Dali Mail (Ryan)
And the final lot of the day,
Danced Every Dance
and Princess Apollo (our
Flat sprinter) were taken for a stroll in nearby lanes with Friday's
Musselburgh scorer Side
of the Road having a gentle canter.
But back to the gallops for a couple of spins and
Eternally Yours,
Honda Fifty,
Paper Promise and our young
Yeats filly were put through their paces.
Honda Fifty (Ryan) gives a lead to Paper Promise (Leah) and 'Margaret' (Rebecca)
Youngsters return
As touched on above, several of our younger horses have come back into the yard for a second spell of training. Purposely, we take our standard approach with these National Hunt stores. They'll have been in training for a few weeks in late autumn before having a couple of months away from our yard to mature and strengthen. This second spell will last a bit longer - maybe 10-12 weeks - before again being given time to strengthen and mature, this time at summer grass.
'Mila' (Durban Thunder filly), 'Hope' (Shantou filly), 'Margaret' (Yeats
filly, a half sister to Eternally Yours) and 'Rob' (an Arcadio gelding
sent along by Rob Bewley) are all now back in the yard. You may have
noticed that we give the stable name 'Rob' to all the Bewley horses -
makes it easier for the lads to remember, apparently.
'Seb', Mouse Young's exciting Prince Flori gelding is down the road with
Gary Rutherford for some pre-training. Incidentally, Gary also has our
Midnight Legend 3yr old gelding who is completing his education. This is
another sibling of Eternally Yours and all being well he may appear in
the yard for a couple of weeks towards the end of April.
Also in is Princess Apollo, the Chamberlain brothers flat sprinter who
ran a few times last season. She's being prepared for another flat
campaign.
The Yeats filly leading Paper Promise
Musselburgh Friday revisited
It may only have been a 0-100 handicap hurdle, and won by a horse with a
BHA rating of 78 but the whole yard were absolutely delighted with the
victory of Side of the Road on Friday at Musselburgh.
She's a lovely, kind-natured mare with outstanding conformation and an
exciting NH pedigree, the race provided our proudest moment of the
season.
So we make no excuses for showing the photo below from the winners enclosure with Side of the Road flanked by Al Duncan, Mark 'Mouse' Young and Craig Nichol.