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By
the time this newsletter reaches you, I hope you and your family have
enjoyed a great Christmas and enjoyed the festivities.
This
month has certainly been one of up’s and down’s. The publicity we have
received both in the racing and national press has been fantastic whilst the
recent Attheraces, BBC and Racing Post features were a great boost to the
yard.
On
the flip side, whilst I certainly enjoyed the build up to the Boylesports
Gold Cup and the Welsh National, the performances of Atouchbetweenacara and
Flintoff were disappointing on many levels. Fortunately, both horses had
excuses which I am in process of remedying and hopefully we can get them
both back on track sooner rather than later.
I am
sure both horses can once again be competitive on the bigger stage, but the
experience hasn’t been lost on me and only further driven my desire to move
the yard forward.
At
the present time, we continue to consolidate our position in the Top Ten of
the National Trainers Championship and the seasonal numerical total of 70
winners has only been bettered by Jonjo O’Neill. Statistically we have a win
and place strike rate of over 50% (includes 66 seconds!!) with prizemoney
earnings rapidly approaching £400,000.
Overall, 2009 has seen us send out 92 winners with a further 136 placed
horses. We have maintained a steady winning strike rate of around 18%
throughout the year and I am particularly proud to have trained more winners
over jumps during this period than any other trainer in Wales.
Coupled with all the new stabling and increased capital expenditure at Pant
Wilkin, it has been a huge twelve months for us all and I have to be
delighted with the progress made. I am particularly proud of the yard as a
whole and I would hope that we can compete with the facilities and service
provided by other leading yards throughout the country.
I
have further developments planned for 2010 and I am confident it will see us
move forward in many different ways, but this year has been a fantastic time
and given me the platform to move forward.
New Arrivals
Once
again, I am delighted that we have continued to attract new faces, both
equine and human, to the yard. This month has seen Mark Williams purchase
Railway Diva, a progressive 6 year old mare who should start off for us in
“bumpers” in the spring, whilst Ger Whyte and his Castle Inn syndicate have
purchased a very nice 6 year old gelding, Mullins Mill, who was an
impressive winner of a point-to-point in Ireland on his last outing. Another
Irish pointing winner, The Ferbane Man (Aidan and Ger Flynn) has also joined
us and put up two decent performances in “bumpers” this month and looks to
be a very nice prospect once he goes over staying trips, although we will
give him his chance over hurdles before he goes chasing.
I am
particularly keen on attracting well bred youngsters to the yard and I
delighted that Tom Chadney (Chasing Gold) has kindly sent us a 5 year old
mare who certainly fits the bill in the shape of Viking Gold who is a ½
sister to black type performer Hell’s Bay from the family of Queen Mother
Champion Chase winners Viking Flagship and Flagship Uberalles. Furthermore,
Tom Malone has sent us a lovely un-named 4 year old gelding by Subtle Power
who he purchased from the Kempton breeze-up sales. Knowing Tom it won’t be
long before he finds a client for him!!
Another agent who I am keen to work with is Grant Lewis who like Tom Malone
is forging a great reputation for himself. Grant is the son of the late
Keith Lewis, who was widely acknowledged as one of the best judges of
bloodstock around and after a recent trip to Ireland, we managed to secure
four new highly exciting prospects for the yard, details of which will
follow in next month’s newsletter.
Dr
Christopher Barnett has transferred Lord Gunnerslake to the yard and
hopefully he will be competitive in handicap chases, whilst T.C and A Winter
and Partners purchased Tar from the recent Doncaster sales to run in
handicap hurdles.
Press Coverage
I am
very lucky to have an excellent relationship with the racing media and press
and very grateful for the tremendous amount of publicity they have provided
for the yard. I have deliberately made a concerted effort to be as helpful
and forthcoming as possible when approached for interviews and I would hope
that this will continue to be case for many years to come.
My
regular Saturday column in Racing Plus seems to have been well received and
can also be viewed on-line at
www.racing-plus.co.uk.
Yard Sponsorship
The
partnership with Cardiff based Financial Services specialist Morgan Peterson
is now firmly in place and I am proud to have them as yard sponsor for the
next three years. All owners should now be aware of the agreement and the
format for reclaiming VAT, but if you have queries please don’t hesitate to
give Carole or Mark a call in the office. I am particularly pleased with the
quality of all branded clothing and paddock sheets provided. They certainly
reflect a professional image of both parties and hopefully they will be seen
in the winner’s enclosure plenty of times over the coming seasons!!! I am
led to believe that features will appear in the racing and national/local
press over the next week.
Horses For Sale
As
you will have probably ascertained by the new recruits to the yard, I am
making a conscious effort to really bolster the quality of horse in the
yard, but also slightly refining my buying criteria. We have enjoyed great
success over the past couple of years identifying horses who we felt would
benefit from our regime to win in handicap company and whilst I will
obviously continue to purchase these types, I am looking more and more at
the younger less exposed horses who potentially have the scope to scale the
heights. Also, the Irish market has undergone something of a re-adjustment
over the past 12 months and horses especially in the pointing field have
become a lot more realistically priced and therefore offering sensible value
for money for owners.
Two Left Boots – 5 year old bay gelding - £12,000
By :
Sagacity Out of : Kemalina
A
lightly raced and progressive novice hurdler in Ireland who seems to handle
most types of ground. Winner of a 16 runner handicap at Tramore in May by 4
lengths where the Racing Post comment was as follows:-
“Slowly
into stride and held up towards rear, smooth headway on outer from 3 out,
2nd 2 out, led before last, ran on well, easily”
Two Left Boots
has continued to
show a good level of form and with a rating of 115 should be able to win a
novice race under a penalty. A well bred gelding who looks to likely to go
on over fences in time.
Isle of Inishmore - £6,500
By :- Tel Quel Out of
:- Natidja
A good looking bay
gelding, standing 16.1hh, Isle of Inishmore has form in Ireland which I
believe will make him very competitive in handicap hurdles with the scope to
progress over fences.
I have had my eye on this
horse for some time now and if sensibly placed, I am sure he will be winning
races sooner rather than later.
From the close family of
Nakir (Arkle Chase winner) by a stallion whose progeny typically improve
with age, Isle of Inishmore is now back in from his summer break and
starting off his road work.
Is the type of horse we
have enjoyed great success with and after a short break to freshen her up, I
am sure we will get her back on the winning trail once again if we are
realistic as to her grade.
Piment D’Estruval - £6,500
Out
of : Shayraan Out of :- Gabika De Keroger
Piment D’Estruval is a very good looking 6 year old bay gelding who was
placed in a “bumper” and has some very consistent form over hurdles in
Ireland at trips of around 2 ½ miles. Piment D’Estruval has an Irish
handicap mark of 94 which will equate to around 100 BHB, which on glimpses
of his form will make him very competitive. He has the scope to jump fences
and could improve again once he switches to the larger obstacles.
Horse Performances – The
Results
On
the face of it, two winners for the month would seem disappointing and
whilst I can’t pretend to be happy with the tally, I have to be realistic in
respect of the horses that we have run. I think everybody can appreciate
that racing is arguably as competitive during the winter months as at any
other time of the year and in many instances the horses are simply
struggling off their current marks or falling below the grade in novice
company.
One
of the most pleasing aspects of the past year was the increase in quality of
horses at the yard, but even then with the leading yards getting into full
swing, they have such strength in depth that it was highly likely that our
strike rate would suffer a little. In addition, having a yard that can
compete consistently at the highest level takes years to develop and in
reality we have only had 18 months in which to try and nurture the string.
It
has been commented upon that certain runners from the yard haven’t been
running up to form over the past 6 weeks. I always try and analyse patterns
of performance and one or two horses have run below expectations with no
obvious explanation. Maybe in an 80 horse yard you could be prepared to put
that down to the law of averages. However, having taken advice from Tim
Beauregard, our resident vet and taking second opinion from the highly
respected Buffy Shirley-Beavan (vet for Paul Nicholls, Nicky Henderson etc)
we have just undertaken a major programme of blood testing and tracheal
washes. The results have been highly informative, but have primarily
concluded that the horses remain in the good health. A small percentage of
the yard, mostly mares/fillies, are in the midst of a low grade infection
which will be treated with anti-biotics, but the veterinary opinion is
adamant that in a yard of our current size, this is only to be expected. The
fact that it is mainly mares who are not quite 100% might be sheer
coincidence, but is something I will keep an eye on for the future.
It is
always great to have a winner for a new owner and Middleham Park Racing,
Steve Morris and Colin Davies got off the mark at the first time of asking
with Makhzoon taking a very competitive novice hurdle at Leicester. He is a
nice horse who we purchased from Doncaster sales earlier in the year and I
am sure he has the scope to progress much further.
Winterwood stepped up his pleasing seasonal debut when taking a handicap
hurdle at Doncaster, also providing the yard with a first winner for Mrs L M
Edwards. Given a great ride by Richard Johnson, he is a horse who likes to
make things hard for himself, but at the line he was well on top and won
going away. There is no reason why he can’t go on from here and he arguably
should improve again when tackling fences.
Three
new recruits to the yard in the shape of Montana Gold (Brian Jones), Maggie
Aron (James Hughes) and The Ferbane Man (Aidan and Ger Flynn) also made
highly promising debuts in finishing runner-up and look highly capable of
getting their heads in front in the near future.
The Team
We
have welcomed two new lads to the yard this month with John Gerrard and Tom
Bohan joining us. John has arrived as a Conditional Jockey from Dessie
Hughes in Ireland and has ridden a couple of winners on the flat and I hope
to able to give him chances where possible, whilst Tom has a wealth of
experience in racing and joins us from Alison Thorpe.
Rather than single out any single member of staff for praise this month, I
would like to thank the team as a whole for all their efforts over the past
year. We now have a settled yard who work hard for each other and I very
much appreciate their efforts and talents. I hope that many of them stay
with me for a long time to come as without a good team behind you it is very
difficult to achieve anything. It is really pleasing to see many of the
younger staff develop and improve and the attitude of all the staff has been
first class especially during the recent bad weather. On their behalf I
would like to thank the owners who have contributed to their Christmas fund
and they had a pleasant surprise in their wage packets.
Owners
I was
particularly pleased to welcome so many owners to the yard for our owner’s
morning on the 19th where everybody seemed to enjoy the mulled
wine and mince pies.
It
goes without saying that whilst the staff have played a major part in our
success, so have the owners. The progress we have made during 2009 would not
have been possible without the loyalty and understanding of you all and I
hope that you have enjoyed the experience throughout the year. The kind
comments made as to the yard, website and works undertaken in recent times
have given me much confidence and are greatly appreciated.
I
thank you once again for your continued support and look forward to seeing
you soon.
Best
wishes for New Year.
Kind
regards
Tim |
