This is a very exciting time of year because there are always a few young horses starting out on what we hope will be productive campaigns. One such is Anis Etoile. She is now five and won a bumper last year, but she definitely comes into that category because when she runs at Leicester tomorrow it will be her Flat debut. That really will be something to look forward to, as the day has been a long time in coming: when she arrived here as a yearling in October 2006, the aim was to have her running on the Flat in 2007, and we are now in April 2010! Another horse whose campaign got under way this week was Christy Ring,
who made his debut in a bumper at Kempton on Wednesday. Christy Ring (pictured above on the Heath recently under Conor Ryan) is the same age as Anis Etoile, but hasn't spent nearly as much time here as she has done because he spent his first two years in training with Godolphin. He's a nice horse and ran a very promising debut under Richard Johnson (pictured, cantering him to post) even if it was less pleasing than the optimists who backed him into a short-priced favourite would have hoped. He has plenty of speed and I am sure would have a decent future on the Flat, but he showed enough promise at Kempton to say that he should definitely be able to win under National Hunt rules as well.
The forecast is very good for tomorrow which should make the trip to Leicester even more of a treat, with the temperature set to get close to 20 degrees this weekend, a figure we have understandably yet to reach (or approach) this year. The past couple of weeks in general have been lovely. Surprisingly enough, we have still been having ground frosts overnight, with the nightime lows twice this week having dipped to zero, but we've more or less had days of unbroken sunshine, with the temperatures getting into the low teens, which has led to some spectacular mornings on the Heath, as these two pictures show.
The first is of a rear view of Michael Jarvis' string heading onto the Severals, while the latter shows some Godolphin horses on the walking ground on the side of the Heath at the back of Beech Hurst. No doubt we shall be having plenty of people complaining that it's getting too dry, but we spend more than enough time in very wet conditions, so a couple of rain-free weeks are to be savoured - and the one thing one knows for sure when one gets a dry period during the spring is that we certainly aren't going to go entirely without rain until September!
Just before I retire to bed, I should add belated congratulations to one of Newmarket's younger riders, Lewis Walsh, who recently rode his first winner, partnering Secret Asset to victory in a decent handicap at Wolverhampton. This was a great training triumph by Jane Chapple-Hyam, because Secret Asset was formerly a notoriously difficult horse whose faults including having very bad barrier manners, and this race, his first for Jane, was his first run for something like 500+ days. So that was very good - and Lewis did very well too, because he rides the horse at home (and is here pictured doing so earlier this week, with the horse wearing his trademark hood) which I presume isn't a particularly easy job, and rode him very nicely in the race too. Most recently Lewis rode a second for Jane (to whom he is apprenticed) today, so he fully deserves this little slice of praise.
This is a very exciting time of year because there are always a few young horses starting out on what we hope will be productive campaigns. One such is Anis Etoile. She is now five and won a bumper last year, but she definitely comes into that category because when she runs at Leicester tomorrow it will be her Flat debut. That really will be something to look forward to, as the day has been a long time in coming: when she arrived here as a yearling in October 2006, the aim was to have her running on the Flat in 2007, and we are now in April 2010! Another horse whose campaign got under way this week was Christy Ring, 
who made his debut in a bumper at Kempton on Wednesday. Christy Ring (pictured above on the Heath recently under Conor Ryan) is the same age as Anis Etoile, but hasn't spent nearly as much time here as she has done because he spent his first two years in training with Godolphin. He's a nice horse and ran a very promising debut under Richard Johnson (pictured, cantering him to post) even if it was less pleasing than the optimists who backed him into a short-priced favourite would have hoped. He has plenty of speed and I am sure would have a decent future on the Flat, but he showed enough promise at Kempton to say that he should definitely be able to win under National Hunt rules as well.
The forecast is very good for tomorrow which should make the trip to Leicester even more of a treat, with the temperature set to get close to 20 degrees this weekend, a figure we have understandably yet to reach (or approach) this year. The past couple of weeks in general have been lovely. Surprisingly enough, we have still been having ground frosts overnight, with the nightime lows twice this week having dipped to zero, but we've more or less had days of unbroken sunshine, with the temperatures getting into the low teens, which has led to some spectacular mornings on the Heath, as these two pictures show. 
The first is of a rear view of Michael Jarvis' string heading onto the Severals, while the latter shows some Godolphin horses on the walking ground on the side of the Heath at the back of Beech Hurst. No doubt we shall be having plenty of people complaining that it's getting too dry, but we spend more than enough time in very wet conditions, so a couple of rain-free weeks are to be savoured - and the one thing one knows for sure when one gets a dry period during the spring is that we certainly aren't going to go entirely without rain until September!
Just before I retire to bed, I should add belated congratulations to one of Newmarket's younger riders, Lewis Walsh, who recently rode his first winner, partnering Secret Asset to victory in a decent handicap at Wolverhampton. This was a great training triumph by Jane Chapple-Hyam, because Secret Asset was formerly a notoriously difficult horse whose faults including having very bad barrier manners, and this race, his first for Jane, was his first run for something like 500+ days. So that was very good - and Lewis did very well too, because he rides the horse at home (and is here pictured doing so earlier this week, with the horse wearing his trademark hood) which I presume isn't a particularly easy job, and rode him very nicely in the race too. Most recently Lewis rode a second for Jane (to whom he is apprenticed) today, so he fully deserves this little slice of praise.
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