As May draws to a close, most of the horses have been turned away on their holidays. They have been spoilt for the past few weeks with wall to wall sunshine and have enjoyed plenty of sunbathing and lie-ins on their holidays. The team are also mainly on their holidays, the ones working are busy painting, pressure washing, and cleaning, boring, however necessary whilst the boxes are empty.
We have had a busy enough start to May with 7 runners at one meeting at Newton Abbot! Having called off their meeting the week before, we headed to South Devon with the most runners at a single meeting ever with a few good chances. It was a day of seconds, with The Plimsoll Line running better, King Of The Lake running another good race but lacking experience and Phoenix Risen who was out-stayed all finishing second. Petticoat Lucy pulled an ace out of the bag however and won on her chasing debut. She jumps well and looks to be one to have some fun with over fences this season. It was amazing how quick the ground had dried up, having been water logged only 7 days earlier, it turned good after the first couple of races.
Pilsdon Pen ran another good race to finish 2nd at Ffos Las, Stormy Flight ran well to finish 4th in a competitive handicap chase at Uttoxeter and new recruit, Joe Cotton has run well in his first two novice hurdles. All three are now enjoying the sunshine on their holidays. Harry's Game looks to have a bright future after a very promising run in his second start over hurdles at Ffos Las.
We had a busy couple of days up at Doncaster Goffs UK Sales, starting off at the National Hunt TBA Awards, collecting the Special Achievement Eric Gillie Ltd Trophy for Dashel Drasher. We managed to buy an exciting three year old gelding by Nathaniel out of a flat bred mare who looks like he will come to hand quickly and may be one for the Goffs UK Spring Sale Bumper next Spring. He is currently being broken in by Ben Jones and please get in touch if you are interested in shares!