If I thought that Kadouchski was returning to the Flat after a long absence of 400 and something days, what about Palomar, who has his first Flat run tomorrow at Lingfield for around four years? This has been brought to my attention because we had a treat today: we went to visit the string of nine horses (including Palomar) which Nicky Richards has stabled in Abingdon Place in the stables where the likes of Takeover Target, Scenic Blast and Elvstroem have lodged in the past. Those horses have, as we know, come over for Royal Ascot and other big Flat meetings, but Nicky's horses are here to prepare for the big jumps races because of their gallops at home being unusable because of frost and snow. Nicky told me that his horses at home today had gone out of the yard for the first time for a month - and there is more snow forecast for the Lake District later this week, so that return to semi-normality might be short-lived for them up there. Anyway, annoying though it must be for him to have to send a bunch of horses away so that they can be exercised, it's great for Newmarket because, although we are spoilt for seeing high-class Flat horses, high-class steeplechasers are usually conspicuous by their absence on the Heath. Not so now, with the likes of the wonderful Monet's Garden, Money Trix and the massive Skippers Brig standing out on the training grounds. I had the pleasure of seeing Monet's Garden, ridden by Nicky's daughter Joey (pictured on Long Hill this morning with two of his stable-mates), and Money Trix, ridden by his trainer, at exercise this morning (it's easy to spot those two because they are grey, but I can't identify any of the bay horses) and this evening Emma and I were cheeky enough to invite ourselves up to the stable to inspect them close up - which really was impressive because we get used to thinking that 16-hand horses are big, so to stand up to these mighty giants was great. We're seeing plenty of Nicky's two lads, Scott Marshall and Stephen Mulqueen, as they are staying in Exeter Road with Vanda and Phil Sturch, and the presence of this string is a lovely ray of winter sunshine for the town. Let's hope that one or more of the horses can add to history's roll of honour of feature-race winners prepared on Newmarket Heath.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
A ray of winter sunshine
I'm looking forward to our trip to Kempton tomorrow when Kadouchski has his first Flat run for roughly 16 months. As he likes to go right-handed, Kempton is the only one of the four AW tracks which is suitable for him, so I've been keeping an eye out for a middle- or long-distance handicap in which a horse rated 47 can run off his true mark. Tomorrow there is one, over a mile and a half, so he can run in it, prior to going back over hurdles a couple of weeks later. The last time I ran him at Kempton he was drawn one (ie was the widest runner, Kempton being a right-handed track) but tomorrow he has fared very differently: he's drawn 14 of 14, so is right on the inside, which is great. Rab Havlin rides and I'm pleased about that, because Rab is a classic example of an unsung hero - whenever he's ridden for us, he's given the horse a 10-out-of-10 ride. So let's hope for a good run. Kadouchski, although obviously the only runner from this stable, won't be the only runner from the property because Dave Morris' Cragganmore Creek also runs in the race, and the two horses will travel down together. Furthermore, a half-brother to one of our inmates also contests the race: Batgirl's half-brother Midnight Bay, who last month attained the unusual distinction of contesting two races within 24 hours of each other at tracks over 100 miles apart and under different codes. He ran at Kempton on the all-weather one evening and then at Ludlow over hurdles the following afternoon! He'll think he's in heaven only running once tomorrow - let's hope he doesn't beat us!
If I thought that Kadouchski was returning to the Flat after a long absence of 400 and something days, what about Palomar, who has his first Flat run tomorrow at Lingfield for around four years? This has been brought to my attention because we had a treat today: we went to visit the string of nine horses (including Palomar) which Nicky Richards has stabled in Abingdon Place in the stables where the likes of Takeover Target, Scenic Blast and Elvstroem have lodged in the past. Those horses have, as we know, come over for Royal Ascot and other big Flat meetings, but Nicky's horses are here to prepare for the big jumps races because of their gallops at home being unusable because of frost and snow. Nicky told me that his horses at home today had gone out of the yard for the first time for a month - and there is more snow forecast for the Lake District later this week, so that return to semi-normality might be short-lived for them up there. Anyway, annoying though it must be for him to have to send a bunch of horses away so that they can be exercised, it's great for Newmarket because, although we are spoilt for seeing high-class Flat horses, high-class steeplechasers are usually conspicuous by their absence on the Heath. Not so now, with the likes of the wonderful Monet's Garden, Money Trix and the massive Skippers Brig standing out on the training grounds. I had the pleasure of seeing Monet's Garden, ridden by Nicky's daughter Joey (pictured on Long Hill this morning with two of his stable-mates), and Money Trix, ridden by his trainer, at exercise this morning (it's easy to spot those two because they are grey, but I can't identify any of the bay horses) and this evening Emma and I were cheeky enough to invite ourselves up to the stable to inspect them close up - which really was impressive because we get used to thinking that 16-hand horses are big, so to stand up to these mighty giants was great. We're seeing plenty of Nicky's two lads, Scott Marshall and Stephen Mulqueen, as they are staying in Exeter Road with Vanda and Phil Sturch, and the presence of this string is a lovely ray of winter sunshine for the town. Let's hope that one or more of the horses can add to history's roll of honour of feature-race winners prepared on Newmarket Heath.
If I thought that Kadouchski was returning to the Flat after a long absence of 400 and something days, what about Palomar, who has his first Flat run tomorrow at Lingfield for around four years? This has been brought to my attention because we had a treat today: we went to visit the string of nine horses (including Palomar) which Nicky Richards has stabled in Abingdon Place in the stables where the likes of Takeover Target, Scenic Blast and Elvstroem have lodged in the past. Those horses have, as we know, come over for Royal Ascot and other big Flat meetings, but Nicky's horses are here to prepare for the big jumps races because of their gallops at home being unusable because of frost and snow. Nicky told me that his horses at home today had gone out of the yard for the first time for a month - and there is more snow forecast for the Lake District later this week, so that return to semi-normality might be short-lived for them up there. Anyway, annoying though it must be for him to have to send a bunch of horses away so that they can be exercised, it's great for Newmarket because, although we are spoilt for seeing high-class Flat horses, high-class steeplechasers are usually conspicuous by their absence on the Heath. Not so now, with the likes of the wonderful Monet's Garden, Money Trix and the massive Skippers Brig standing out on the training grounds. I had the pleasure of seeing Monet's Garden, ridden by Nicky's daughter Joey (pictured on Long Hill this morning with two of his stable-mates), and Money Trix, ridden by his trainer, at exercise this morning (it's easy to spot those two because they are grey, but I can't identify any of the bay horses) and this evening Emma and I were cheeky enough to invite ourselves up to the stable to inspect them close up - which really was impressive because we get used to thinking that 16-hand horses are big, so to stand up to these mighty giants was great. We're seeing plenty of Nicky's two lads, Scott Marshall and Stephen Mulqueen, as they are staying in Exeter Road with Vanda and Phil Sturch, and the presence of this string is a lovely ray of winter sunshine for the town. Let's hope that one or more of the horses can add to history's roll of honour of feature-race winners prepared on Newmarket Heath.
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