And AP Is Worried In 2nd, Here Comes Benozzo Gozzoli!!

Well what a whirlwind week or so it has been, following on from Shilpa's success earlier in the month, Benozzo Gozzoli's (Benny) return to racing was today at Folkestone, the last day of racing ever at Folkestone, in the last ever hurdle race before it shuts.

Benny has previously been considered a good ground horse, although he has run many times, on the flat, all weather, over hurdles and chase fences, it has usually been on good ground and safe to say the going today at Folkestone was not good, it wasn't even soft being marked as heavy on the hurdle course.  John and Simon decided to go ahead and run him anyway mainly because Simon has done a lot of work with him and as far as we were concerned he is a bit of a blank canvas, not sure we would have gone ahead if we knew exactly how bad it would cut up but sometimes hindsight is a thing best to be completely ignored.

Andrew Thornton was booked for the ride, Andrew is familiar with Benny having ridden him at Seamus Mullins yard where he was in training until we bought him in June, Andrew is also an expert at picking the best ground which is a skill we thought would be very useful with the weather we have been having.  Andrew got him settled in a good position and I was really pleased to see how well he was jumping and steadily making his way up the field.  By the end of the first circuit all the horses were looking tired but by this point Andrew had got him positioned in third and he still looked to be going well.  Derek Thompson was commentating and it was great to hear him say 'and AP is worried in 2nd, here comes Benozzo Gozzoli', Benny and Andrew managed to get past AP on the favourite Stravita to come in to second place, by this time all three horses looking very tired.  The leader Boomtown made a mistake at the last and Benny jumped it well, but by this point the heavy ground had really made it's mark on Ben and he finished in second place 21 lengths behind the winner Boomtown, and 11 lengths in front of third place Stravita.

We are all delighted with his performance, although not a EPDS horse as he was bought as John's ride in a charity race and for John to ride out on, he is still very much part of the EPDS family and is a bit of a favourite with us all due to his lovely nature.  Plan now is for him to spend the next few days walking out to loosen off after the race and depending on how he goes in the next few weeks John and Simon will look for another suitable race for him in about six weeks time, lets hope the going is a bit better next time.

For me personally it has been great to see Benny back on the course doing well.  He caught my eye at Seamus's yard when we were there to see another horse, John was offered the chance to ride work on him with the string, he had only been riding for five months by that point.  I promised Benny that if he bought John back safe and sound in one piece that we would buy him at Ascot Sales and John duly did.  Since that time he has taught John quite a bit about riding and it is a shame they didn't both get the chance to do the charity flat race that he had been promised he had an entry for.  Hopefully there will be something for them both to do in the future, in the meantime it is good to know that Ben has another chance as a jumper and this experience will only make him a more formidable opponent should they get the chance to do something for charity next year.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!!!

10th December saw Shilpa's return to the racecourse since she had some time off after her disappointing and worrying performance at Ffos Las back in August.  During this time we have worked on some health issues and Simon has changed her work and schooling regime.  Simon reported that she was pretty sparky at home and although she is a good ground horse bearing in mind the weather, and the fact that we were ready to go with her this time last year then UK racing shot down due to frost and snow, we thought we had better seize the day just in case it happened again.

She duly made the trip to Fakenham, taken by Simon on his own and both enjoyed the delights of an overnight stay, I think Shilpa possibly in more comfortable surroundings than Simon who was suffering with a heavy cold.  Shilpa travelled up well and the following morning with the permission of the Clerk Of Course Simon took her out for a leg stretch around the course and reported back that the ground was very wet, but not sticky.

Suffice to say we didn't have great expectations due to the going but the girl and Gerard did us proud, Gerard getting her positioned nicely and on the last circuit gradually picking them off one by one.  The race was commented by Derek Thompson and he hadn't mentioned her at all until he said 'and here comes Shilpa'  as she was making her move, she made a great jump at the last and finished strongly winning by 3/4 length.

We are all absolutely delighted with the win, Shilpa has had her problems and some people around us have commented that we should send her to a different trainer who would be harder on her, or retire her as she wasn't up to it any more, but we always believed that if we could get her right health wise she would do well for us.  

She came out of the race well and has been showing a lot of joie de vie in her work since, we visited on Saturday and she certainly looked in good spirits giving Sam quite a challenge when she was supposed to be doing some trot work and a steady canter, I think Shilpa had other ideas.  Plan now (weather permitting) is to look for something for her in the New Year, hopefully the handicapper won't put her up too much in the meantime.

Benny and George Go Back To School

Yesterday John, Charlotte and myself had an early start to go over to Simon Earle's to see all the horses.  EPDS sponsor a young jockey called George Gorman, George is a great lad who has ridden in point to points and had two races under rules riding for his mother.  Although we have sponsored George for about a year now, we had not managed to actually get him sat on any one of our horses, mainly due to logistics as the two yards are about 2.5 hours away, and George has only recently passed his driving test (being just 17).

Anyway, yesterday it all came together and George had arranged with Simon that he would be in the yard for 8.30am to school Benozzo Gozzoli (Benny) and then ride work on Loxley Mezile (Poppy), this meant we had to be there at that time too, so a very early start for us as well, so early in fact that the horse I had to do before we left was laying down asleep in her stable when I arrived at the yard and was turned out looking very bleary eyed indeed.  She at least had had breakfast however, unlike the rest of us.

Got to the yard and said hi to all the horses, Shilpa was looking great after her race earlier in the week, Homer was a little bit miserable having blown an abscess out of his coronet band, Benny looked in fine fettle and Poppy had lost a little bit of weight following her race at Lingfield but was bright eyed and bushy tailed as normal.  George quickly tacked Benny up and then they hacked up to the large outdoor school at Downlands that Simon uses for schooling.

I'm not quite sure what George was expecting but it probably wasn't anything like a Simon Schooling Session.  George has come in to racing via pony racing and the pony club, so he is perfectly used to someone in the middle of the school shouting instructions at him, his flatwork was really good and he rides accurately to his markers, transitions at C were at C, change of diagonals were straight, he even (god forbid) rode his corners.  I think he needs to get out of this correct way of riding if he wants to progress, go round corners on the wrong bend, preferably with one hand on the reins and to really reach the heady heights, possibly with a fag hanging out of his mouth!  Seriously it was nice to see a young rider ride quietly and accurately, he is the first person in the school for a long time that I haven't wanted to drag off the horse and explain the importance of bend to.  It was the first time we had seen Benny being schooled and he hasn't done a great deal, Simon said that the first time he asked him to canter in the school he was so stiff he couldn't bend around a corner so my expectations were not high.  George warmed him up on the flat and then Simon explained what he wanted him to do and ride:

Once Benny was warmed up Simon introduced the jumps, Simon always starts a session in the same way, a small grid of poles on the ground building up to cross poles and then uprights, then an upright leading to a small spread culminating in a single jump with pallets to make it hurdle like.  George was asked to canter at A, come back to trot at C, trot over the first part of the jump then in to canter between the elements and canter away back round the school to C and repeat.  Simon likes the horse to learn from it's own mistakes so George was not to see a stride and if Ben landed on the wrong leg he wasn't to change leads, just let Ben sort it out for himself.  This is the complete opposite to any form of showjump gridwork that George would have done before but he picked it up well, he just needed to get Benny motoring on a bit more.  Simon hopped on to show him the tempo he wanted to go at, which I have to say was a surprise to me in an outdoor school the first time I saw him ride it on Shilpa, particularly on a horse that may be going round a left handed corner on a right leg lead, and in Ben's case, one that a few weeks ago couldn't bend around a corner anyway!

George did very well and they were both popping the fences nicely at the end, my camera batteries were starting to die at this point so I didn't get many shots but this one is probably the best of what I got:

I also managed to get some video which shows the canter trot jump canter exercise, this was taken before Simon asked George to up the energy a bit:

They then finished with a single jump being ridden at a good working canter with George not setting Benny up for the fence at all, but letting him jump out of his stride.  

Benny is owned by John so not a club or partnership horse at the minute, mainly because John would like to ride a charity race on him at some point and it is fair to say that John riding work is probably not the best way of keeping Benny up together.  He is due to race soon however with entries for the 18th, 20th and 21st December, we are hoping Andrew Thornton will ride him as he has ridden him before.  We are not sure what to expect with him really as Simon has put a lot of work in to him and physically he is now quite a different horse, he has an official rating of 80 so I suspect the bookies won't think much of his chances but it would be nice to see him go out and get round and enjoy himself.

We then all returned back to the yard for a welcome cup of coffee while George tacked up Poppy to take her up one of the grass gallops.  Simon boxed to this gallop as it is the other side of a busy dual carriageway, not sure it would have been my first choice as a gallop being part of the army training grounds, there is a footpath that runs up the side of it but Simon explained we could not go along the ridge that they were going to be cantering across, I presume for fear of being shot.  They did one steady and one quicker canter, Simon has backed off the fast work a bit with Poppy to give her plenty of time to recover from the Lingfield race, she is not fit enough for the race at Newbury and the ground is likely to be heavy so it looks like we will be aiming for something on an all weather again in the New Year.  We didn't get a chance to speak to George about his thoughts on Poppy as by this time we were freezing, all needed the loo and the Little Chef down the road was calling.

As ever a warm welcome from everyone at the yard and a very enjoyable morning.

EPDS/Racing Welfare Best Turned Out Series Finale

The finale of the best turned out series was at Wincanton on 6th December.  The competition started back in January at Huntingdon where the first winner was Charlie Longsdon.  Each month a BTO qualifying round has been held at small jumps tracks around the country with points being award for first, second and third places with cash prizes for all three and branded gilets for the winning groom.

Going in to the finale two yards were joint first, Welsh trainer Tim Vauhan and Cambridgeshire based Sarah Humphrey, both yards on 20 points.  Six other yards were snapping at their heels with 15 points and six trainers on 10 points meaning it was all to play for at the last.  However, you have to be in it to win it and only two trainers high in the points list had entries in the Weatherbys Silver Buck Chase which meant that only Venetia Williams or Oliver Sherwood's yard could see off the opposition, should either of their entries come in the first three.

Jackie Potts who is head groom to Olympic rider William Fox Pitt kindly agreed to judge, and being a professional groom herself the lads and lasses had a high standard to live up to.  Venetia Williams proudly proclaims she has the dirtiest horses in training however the yard pulled out all the stops and were placed in the top three meaning they were the winners of the £1000 prize to be spent on the staff in the yard.  Venetia has asked the staff to decide what they would like to spend the money on, I'm expecting there to be a few sore heads at the Christmas or New Year Annual party!

EPDS are proud to announce that we will continue to sponsor the competition in 2013, Racing Welfare are also hoping to run a similar competition for flat yards in 2013 and are currently looking for a sponsor.

Well done to all the lads and lasses that took part, we hope they have all enjoyed their BTO prize money and here's looking forward to next years competition.

Loxley Mezile (Poppy) Débuts At Lingfield

Well for me it feels like it has been a long time coming, because we bought Poppy as a 2 year old, but on 27 November she made her début at Lingfield in a 3 year old National Hunt Flat (bumper) on the all weather, ridden by Gerard Tumelty.

Because we bought her at such a tender age we have taken our time with her, introducing her to work slowly and Simon has been working not only on her musculature but also her brain and her attitude to work.  Poppy can be a little headstrong at times but if channelled in the correct way this translates in to a joie de vie for her work, because of her slightly bouncy nature I was a little bit apprehensive about how she would take to her first 'grown up party' but the girl did us proud.

Holly led her up in the pre-parade ring and she was alert but cool calm and collected, being a 3 year old race  there were a lot of inexperienced youngsters entered, I think only two had ever raced before.  Things got a little exciting in the ring culminating in a horse getting loose and legging it towards Poppy, although she swung her bottom around as a warning to keep clear she did nothing else (most horses would have put one or both back hooves up in a horse equivalent of either a V or one fingered salute).

Gerard was instructed to give her a good experience of racing and got her positioned nicely, unfortunately when he asked her to go she got blocked in and he had to take a bit of a pull and then switch her to the outside, loosing valuable ground in the process.  She ended up finishing 8th out of 14th, 8 lengths behind the winner and alongside Chris Pea Green who had won his previous race first time out.

We were very pleased with her performance, although at one stage she lost a bit of concentration and came off the bridle, Gerard quickly got her focus back and when he asked her to go she did.  She finished strongly, her stride was very good and all in all it was a very promising start to her race career.

Plan is for a couple more bumpers before Simon starts schooling her over jumps, being young we want to ensure she has time to mature before we think about hurdling, even though there are 3 year old juvenile hurdles that she could be entered for.  We like our horses to be fit and healthy and have a long career so we will give her all the time she needs, if she takes to jumping like she attacks everything else in life however, I think we have a very talented girl on our hands.

Some pictures taken on the day by Racing Club member Ellie:

Poppy and Holly in the pre-parade ring

Poppy, Holly and Wally Irvine, Simon's excellent horsebox driver who is also happy to muck in with saddling and leading up

More parading, think Poppy just wanted to get out there at this point

Gerard on board with Simon issuing some last minute instruction

Shares are available in this promising youngster, please email us for more information.

It's All In A Name

Names are very important to us for the horses, we like strong positive racing names but stable names that reflect the character and personality of the horse, that the guys handling the horse can relate to.  Nothing worse than hearing 'move over you' or 'his stable name is Sh*t Face'.  In the same way as it is with us, it is hard to say a name with anything other than the emotion you are feeling, "Morning Maisey" with a smile in your voice and the horse will know you are pleased to see them, they will be even more happy if you are carrying their breakfast at the same time.  The last few weeks for us have all been about names which has been quite funny, but also a little frustrating.

When John and I bought Onedin Line (Oh-Knee-Din Line) we never for one minute thought this was a difficult name.  I don't know about John but in my house growing up, the quieter you were in the living room, the longer you got to stay up, consequently I spent the 70's watching a variety of drama series that I probably wasn't that interested in, many of which had links to boats, The Onedin Line, When The Boats Come In and if dad was out and it was just me and mum, The Love Boat and Triangle.  I have to thank my parents for this early education because it means I know how to pronounce Onedin Line, and given enough alcohol, may even be able to hum the theme tune.

We have been keeping a list of our favourite mis-pronounciations of Onedin Line, so far we have:

In third place - Simon Earle, Wan-Din Line (stable name of Wanda).

In second place - Jamie Snowdon One-Din Line (when I told Jamie that he was obviously too young to remember the 70's TV show he said he wasn't born until 1979 which is quite frankly ridiculous),

First place however goes to Wally Irvine our excellent racehorse transporter, a recent invoice for transporting Onedin came through in the name of On-Lynne Bin-Line (stable name of Bin Laden?).

Onedin Line is now at Venetia Williams yard, Simon had threatened to tell the yard his stable name was Wanda rather than Odin but I'm not sure he did.  We haven't yet found out what they are calling him (hopefully not Sh*t Face) but we will, it is going to be even more exciting to hear what the course announcers call him when he starts his racing career in earnest with us.

Not content with struggles with Onedin Line's name, we have also in the last couple of weeks announced the winning name from our 'name Poppy our unraced/unamed racehorse competition'.  We had lots of entries some of which were very clever and people had tried to take inspiration from her breeding (Strategic Prince and Haiti Dancer).  The Judging Panel liked the name Mezile (Meh-zee-lah) who is the current Minister for Women's Affairs in Haiti, we duly checked that it was available and sent all the forms off to register the name.  We were a bit concerned however for it to be rejected on the grounds that it was too similar to a horse in racing called Mezel, we therefore took the only course of action available to us, and put a prefix on it making Poppy now Loxley Mezile.  This is not such a big deal as having 'our' prefix means that we can use it as part of Maisey's foals name, eg Loxley Explorer (or something like that) out of Lisellan Amazon.  Hopefully all the paperwork will go through and we will actually have a horse with a name for her first race in a couple of weeks.  Whatever she is called on the course, she will always be Poppy to us (or Pops, Popsy, Poppies - definitely not Sh*t Face).

And finally this blog entry is bought to you by our new Blog identity EPDS Equine, I eventually got around to setting myself up with a more business like blog name rather than using my personal account.  It's still me doing the blogs, I am just called EPDS Equine, that is E-P-D-S Equine, or just Sh*t Face(d)!!

F F F Freezing But Fun Yard Visit

Yesterday EPDS Racing and friends visited the yard at Simon Earle Racing to see all our horses in training, it was a good day to pick, not least because the sun was shining (although it was very cold) but also because work with the horses is going well and a couple were due to work on the all weather gallop at Horses First that day.

We arrived in good time, despite the holiday traffic on the A303 - for anyone that regularly drives that route I can recommend turning right at Stonehenge and driving through Shrewton, if for no other reason than you get to see men in uniform, plus the odd tank.

A quick restorative hot drink and some cookies warmed us up and we said hello to all the horses whilst the team were tacking up, three horses were working that session, two of ours, Shilpa and Poppy, and Headly's Bridge owned by Mrs P Bridel who was also there to see her horse work.  All three horses are fully barefoot, Poppy and Headly hacked up to the yard on the roads which takes 10-15 minutes, and Shilpa was popped in the lorry and driven up by Simon and Luke.

It was a beautiful day to be at Horses First, the whole area seems to be designed with the training of racehorses in mind, fantastic hills to work up and a natural bowl that has been turned in to a circular mile of all weather surface perfect to warm up on.  When you get there you can park right at the start of the gallop.

You then ride part way up the gallop and can drop in to the bowl on the left hand side.  Cars can get right up alongside the gallop up to the top, although I have to say we wouldn't have wanted the ground much wetter to have got three cars up to the very top (John - buy a 4x4!!).

Shilpa warmed up around the bowl and waited for the other two horses to join her.  The plan was for them each to do one steady up the hill and then a second gallop slightly faster.  Simon hopped on to Headly for his second gallop, Shilpa was ridden by Luke and Poppy by Sam.

The picture above is their first gallop, Shilpa in front and Poppy behind, you can really see the gradient of the hill in this picture and from where I was standing it continues to climb.

Then they hack back down the gallop again to the bottom ready to come up for the second time.  Here I think Sam is admiring Luke's new riding gear, he has recently been sponsored by Ray Thomas Limited and was immaculately turned out.  Once back to the bottom it was time to come up again, this time a bit faster.

Here we have Poppy nearest the camera and Shilpa on the far side.  Shilpa will always be my special girl but I have to say I am getting quite excited about Poppy, she is maturing all the time, really loves working and I think is going to be pretty quick.  Once they were all at the top then they hacked back down again on a long rein to give them a chance to get their breath back and cool off.

Poppy and Headly hacked back to the yard and Shilpa popped back on to the lorry to be driven home.  Once back at the yard she was showered off and then had a wicking sweat rug put on her and was put back in the stable to dry off.  She decided to help this process by getting down on her nice clean straw bed and having a good roll.

Poppy was untacked and also showered off, she doesn't like the 'dragged through a hedge backwards' look quite as much as Shilpa though.

The other horses were all in good spirits, Benni had forgiven John for his recent visit to the vets and enjoyed getting some fuss from him and Elli.

And surrogate son Homer Run also got in on the act as well.

Onedin Line was out in the paddock looking very happy and nice and muddy, we have been having conversations about how to pronounce his name, it should be pronounced Oh-knee-din Line, after the 70's TV show, his stable name is Odin (after the Norse god).  Simon then had to confess that he has been pronouncing it Wan-din Line, so his stable name has become Wanda (after the goldfish), he's a big butch chestnut, probably going to fill out to about 17hh's, with a girls name, he's probably the laughing stock of the paddock.

Maisey has been moved to her new ancestral home of Heytesbury Park, this is fantastic land, all old turf rolling parkland and very Capability Brown, she's not going to want to come back home once the foal is born.

We then retired to the Angel Inn in Heytesbury for an excellent lunch and a warm up in front of their wood burning stove.  

Plans will be made for the theme of our next yard visit and we look forward to seeing everyone on a racecourse in November/December when hopefully we will have three horses running, think the New Year will be very busy, lets hope we have better weather than last year!

Many thanks to Simon, Katie and all the staff at Simon Earle Racing for their excellent hospitality and time, we are always made to feel very welcome at the yard and it is lovely to see how happy and chilled out all our horses are.

Tracey

Uttoxeter Yesterday

Had a great evening yesterday at Uttoxeter with seven of the partnership members and friends and family, we had never been to the course before and I would describe it as charming (the original buildings are all built in the style of cricket pavilions) but testing (big galloping track with a rise and fall and dog leg then a long finish).

We had travelled up after work so missed the first three races but meet Simon in the owners and trainers bar (free teas, coffees and biscuits) for a quick catch up where he reported that the journey there had taken about 4 hours but Shilpa had travelled well and was chilling out in her box waiting for her race which was the last one on the card at 8.50pm.  We then went off to watch some races and found and owners and trainers box with an excellent view of the course (free teas, coffee and biscuits, wine and soft drinks), out makes you feel good when you have an almost access all areas pass and the first  words you hear when entering the prime box are 'would you like a drink madam'. Suffice to say two glasses of wine on top of a large gin and tonic meant I felt a lot happier being in the paddock for Shilpa's race rather than hiding behind the bike sheds like I usually do.

Shilpa looked very relaxed in the paddock, the light was quite bad so it was a bit hard to take lots of photos without using a flash but I got some and we will post them up to the website.

I wasn't brave enough to watch the race (small steps) but did listen to the race commentary and the others reported that for the first 1.5 miles she was travelling really well, she was sat in about fifth place and with the leading group, she was also jumping really well, then the stiffness of the track and her slight lack of fitness showed and she started to tire the fences out from home. Gerard gave her a very considerate ride and she cleared the last three well, just couldn't find any more to quicken so he bought her home safe and sound ready for another day. We knew that she needed a run and she is entered in three weeks time so she will be all the better for it.

Simon rang us on the way home to say she had recovered well after the race and she was tucked up in the horse box on the way back to Wiltshire, they probably got home about 2am. She will be out in the paddock today stretching her legs and then back on with the work ready for three weeks time.

A good evening was had by all, I think we all backed a few winners and the pork rolls were excellent, feeling very tired this morning though!

Yard Visit And Racing Tomorrow

Me and my friend Trudee had a quick whizz over to Simon's yesterday to see Shilpa school and look at a horse that is being retired from racing and that the owner would like a good home for.  We had a great morning and I'm pleased to report that Shilpa looked great and was probably going as well as I have ever seen her.  We also saw Poppy and Benny who are really loved up, well Benny is gazing at her in a slightly pathetic way, Poppy obviously is playing it cool and keeping her options open should something better appear over the horizon.


Shilpa is running tomorrow at Uttoexeter in the last race at 8.50pm.  There is a group of us going and it should be a fun evening.  As I said Shilpa is looking great, probably in need of the run and Simon has radically changed the way he has been working her recently so it's going to be interesting to see how this has changed her way of going.  There are 20 declared for it which is a big field but means the bookies will be paying out to fourth place.


Tracey


A video from yesterday, Simon is on Shilpa.

Apologies And A Sad Day

Firstly apologies that we have not blogged for a while, things have been a little exciting in EPDS Towers to say the least and we have lots of news to share with you.  I also apologise that what has driven me to blog today is the sad news about the death of Campbell Gillies.

I personally had never met Campbell although I had seen him ride many times, John met him at Hexham a week or so ago and described him as a lovely lad whose passion for what he did came through very clearly. We had spoken to his agent a couple of times about potential opportunities if our horses ran north and it was clear that at some point in the future Campbell would ride for us.

Sadly that day was never to come and our thoughts go out to Campbell's family and friends at this very difficult time.  Having spent time around racing yards we also know how much of a family they are, especially to young jockeys whose family may be many miles away.  In many cases we see the young jockeys treated as surrogate sons and daughters and our thoughts are also with Lucinda Russell and her team who must be devastated by the news today.

Shilpa is due to run at Uttoxeter on Sunday (going permitting) with the agreement of the syndicate members we are going to donate any winnings that we may have to the Injured Jockey Fund.  The IJF are supporting Campbell's family and friends who were on holiday with him, when tragic events occur you are reminded of the excellent work that the IJF do, and we are pleased to support them in any way we can.

Shilpa Running At Hereford

Shilpa runs tomorrow in the 5.20pm at Hereford, we have been hampered by the wet weather after being hampered by the snow and frozen weather over Christmas, good job we decided to give her a holiday and bring her back out when the weather improved.


So first race back after her holiday and first race barefoot, she looked great when we saw her at the open day on Saturday, will give a full report tomorrow evening.  I won't be making the trip myself which means I will be in one of the bookies near work, shouting at the screens, jumping up and down whilst hiding my face with a scarf.  It's not a good look so anyone in the central Reading area please avoid the Paddy Power bookies on Broad Street.

EPDS Racing Welfare BTO Results - 3

Today was the third leg of the EPDS Racing Welfare best turned out series at Carlisle, it was also mothers day so the clever chaps at Racing Welfare were asking people to nominate their mum to help judge the competition.  This apparently proved very popular and although I don't yet know the name of the mum in question she did a very good job by all accounts.


The results were as follows:


1st Chrissi Cameron - Barry Murtagh's yard
2nd - Venetia Williams yard
3rd - Dianne Sayer's yard


We are trying to get the name of the grooms that came second and third and as soon as we have that we will update the blog.  A photo of the winning groom Chrissi:

As you can see from the photo the weather was beautiful at Carlisle today if a little cold.


The league table is now:

15pts - C E Longsdon

15pts - R Dickin

15pts - B Murtagh

15pts - V Williams

10pts - W Greatrex

10pts - K Bishop

 5pts - M Appleby

 5pts - D Sayer


Venetia Williams' yard moves up to joint first place with 15 points after their second place today, they are so far the only yard to place in more than one of the legs so they are the one to watch next time at Ludlow on 5th April.  The remaining dates in the series are:


Ludlow- April 5th, Fakenham- May 27th, Stratford- June 2nd, Worcester- July 31st, Bangor on Dee- August 31st, Market Rasen- September 29th, Fontwell- October 6th, Wetherby- November 17th,Wincanton – December 6th (Finale) 

Another EPDS Road Trip

Friday saw EPDS HQ on the road for another of our little trips, as usual we set ourselves a gruelling schedule particularly as stop one was a visit to see the girls at Simon Earle's and step two involved the M25.


First stop was the yard to see Shilpa, Amazon and Poppy.  Shilpa was just coming back from a hack with Luke, she is hacking out quite well on her own now and Luke reported that she was fine with her feet, she was a little sweaty so they had obviously had a bit of a canter which was good.  Chris Keable had been over to the yard earlier in the week and agreed with what the rest of us thought, the breakover needs to come back a bit, which it will in time, but otherwise they were pretty good.  Amazon was looking great, she has the most amazing feet it is such a shame that she never got to run barefoot on the racecourse.  We have pretty much got our plans sorted out for her, more news to follow shortly.  Poppy was on the horse walker when we arrived warming up before doing a bit of work on the lunge and then loose in the school.  She was slightly distracted by a small grey pony that was turned out in the paddock next door, I think she thought it was going to eat her which is a bit weird because she is stabled next door to it at the moment.  It was great to see her move and she is starting to get a really good relationship with Simon which is fantastic.  They finished the session with a bit of loose follow my leader and then she stood patiently for about five minutes with Simon's arm thrown over her back while he chatted to us.  Simon thinks it is really important that horses can just stand a chill for a bit, she has got quite a busy mind so this is a good lesson for her to learn.

After a quick cup of coffee at the yard and a late breakfast in our local Little Chef we were heading back the way we came to get on the M25 to head over to Horsham.  First stop was Moorcroft Thoroughbred rehabilitation centre, we are looking for a horse charity to support along the lines of our relationship with Racing Welfare.  Moocroft was suggested to us by a trainer in Lambourn so we wanted to pop in and have a look and introduce ourselves.  They have great facilities, they really believe in educating horse owners about the training required when taking on an ex-racehorse and their courses are very popular with both TB and other breed owners.  John and I were both impressed with the professionalism of the centre and the horses looked great.


From there we went over to the Racehorse Sanctuary, this is a small charity that has recently moved in to a yard that Graham and Sue have spent many years sorting out to make it suitable.  There is still some planned work to be done but the most important bits, eg the bits for the horses are in place.  We met Moorcroft Boy, it's hard to believe he is 27, he doesn't look it at all and still enjoys having a bit of a hooley in the paddock.  We met all the horses in the sanctuary and enjoyed greatly the stories about their past careers and what their personalities are like now.


Next stop was over to see George Gorman, George is the apprentice jockey that EPDS sponsors, at only 16 he recently had his first race under rules coming second to Barbers Shop who is trained by Nicky Henderson and owned by the Queen.  George showed us around the yard and we met all the horses including one who George thinks a lot of but unfortunately he isn't a happy traveller.  George now spends 30 minutes hacking him to the gallops and there is some plan for him to do a point to point at their local course which is only two miles away from their yard, I can't imagine many horses get hacked to a race meeting nowadays.  George is hoping he gets to keep the ride, I'm sure he will but maybe only to the course .........!  While we were there George showed us the reply of his race which was the first time I had seen it, I reckon George must be wearing the digi recorder out he must have played it so many times.


After leaving George we headed in to Horsham town centre to meet my friend Sally and go to my favourite chinese in the UK, the China Brasserie.  Unfortunately for John China Brasserie believe in making their spicy food quite spicy and John doesn't like too spicy so we got to stuff our faces while he looked on.  Sally is a riding instructor in her spare time so she has agreed to give John a lesson on her horse soon, should be interesting as Candy is a part bred Andalucian highly trained to weight aids.


We got home about midnight absolutely exhausted but full of plans for the future so it was a great day.

Road To Newmarket - John Starts To Learn To Ride

The more time John spends around racing life, the more he harbours a secret desire to learn to ride.  Not sure whether this stems from his childhood with female relatives doing riding and ballet and the boys doing cricket and football, or whether he has worked out that in riding stables the ratio of females to males is about 20:1 and horsey men are (sometimes physically) fought over.  Anyway he wants to learn to ride, he really would like to do a race and ultimately I think he would like to do a jump race (!).


Those of us that have been riding since the age of about three chuckle at this, there is no doubt it is easier to learn to ride when you are young, particularly as there is that weird phenomenon that ground increases in hardness for each decade you get to.  Also, as a child you are completely unaware of 'what might happen' and you haven't yet got to the stage where as an adult you are completely in control of your own life, but you are never fully 100% in control of a horse.  Learning that you need to work with a horse and become part of it, a bit like two dancers moving in a foxtrot, or maybe an Argentine tango when it comes to jumping, comes hard and it is a skill that some people never learn, that is the difference between a rider, and a good rider.  Technique can be taught but feel is harder to achieve.


I know of four men that have learnt age 30+ two of them in their 40/50's so it can be done, what it takes is a good teacher, a good horse and in the early stages a pair of well padded jockey shorts.  Nowadays you can start to learn on a mechanical horse, people may laugh a bit at this but for the sake of a horse I think it is a great idea.  My friend Sally works in Hyde Park and regularly sees the new police and army recruits learning to ride in the park, this seems like far too much an expanse of grass for my liking.  Sally says she can tell when it is going a bit wrong as the riding master gets them all to circle a tree while they get back under control.  If they get to the next tree and start circling again it's really not going well.  It's not unusual for the new recruits to be riding an hour and not get past three trees.  


John had his first lesson yesterday at Cullinghood in Pangbourne, Cullinghood has a Racewood simulator, these are the people that make the simulators the jockeys use for technique and fitness.  Theirs is a dressage model which I also think is good, get the foundations correct before pulling your stirrups up, if your foundations are good you should be able to ride any style.  Cullinghood's simulator is a deluxe model, it is a cross between a simulator and a Wii game, the horse has sensors so it can check whether you are sat central in the saddle and how you are using your legs.  It also has a neck that flexes so you can steer and it shows how much contact is on the reins, and any uneven contact.  When you have a lesson you can have automatic mode, where the horse is set to move in a particular pace (walk, trot or canter) or you can have manual mode where you apply the aids and you get what you ask for.  John had some trot to halt and a couple of times possibly extended trot with an inadvertent application of a leg, it also has a mane that is great to hold on to (we've all been there John, there is no shame!).

John had a 30 minute lesson and by the end of it was quite red faced and sweaty, he rode in all three paces but not surprisingly it was the rising trot that proved tricky.  Personally I would have dropped his stirrups down a couple of holes, it will also be easier when he is wearing riding boots, chaps and jodhpurs as this will help the position of the iron on his foot and also stabilise the lower leg a bit.  I reckon he needs at least four sessions on the simulator before being introduced to a real horse.  It was a very positive start however and plan is now for him to knock up some hours on the sim before getting on a real horse and going out for a little pootle with an instructor.  The yard is near Yattendon forest so there should be no shortage of trees should the need arise.

EPDS Racing Welfare BTO Results - 2

Today was the second leg of the EPDS Racing Welfare best turned out series at Warwick.  Warwick very kindly gave us another race as the previous meeting had been abandoned, luckily the weather was glorious for racing today so there was no chance that it would not go ahead.


I think word had got out about the series because the standard of turn out in the 3.10pm was very high, the judges had a lot of deliberation before they were able to pick 1st, 2nd and 3rd.


The results were:


1st Freddie Green - Thomas Crapper/R Dickin
2nd Heather Bishop - Queens Grove/K Bishop
3rd Judith Jones - Al Sirat/M Appleby


Well done to all three grooms and yards.  A photo of the winning trio along with John Powell from EPDS Racing and Stephanie King from Racing Welfare presenting the prizes:

The yard league table currently stands at:

15pts - C E Longsdon

15pts - R Dickin

10pts - W Greatrex

10pts - K Bishop

 5pts - Miss V Williams

 5pts - M Appleby

BTO Series - Second Leg Tomorrow

Good luck to everyone in the second leg of the best turned out series, the 3.10 at Warwick tomorrow (the European Breeders Fund "National Hunt" Novices' Hurdle (Qualifier).


There are 14 horses entered so it is sure to be a difficult choice for the judges.  Warwick very kindly gave us another race when the previous meeting on 11th February was abandoned due to the bad weather.  Charlie Longsdon and Warren Greatrex both have runners in the race, their yards came 1st and 2nd last month so this could be a chance for one of them to pull ahead.


We will report the results here tomorrow. Further information can be found on www.epds-racing.co.uk and www.racingwelfare.co.uk.

Poppy - Our New Filly

We went along to Ascot sales yesterday to see some of the horses we had marked in the catalogue as of interest.  This was for a horse not so much to replace Maisey as she is irreplaceable to us but I suppose it is ok to say to replace her as a horse in training as we are pretty much certain she will be going off to be a broodmare shortly.

When we bought Maisey we liked the fact that she had not done any jumping before, taking that a stage further we started thinking about a horse that had never even raced before that was a completely blank canvas.  I had to say this idea came from our visits to the studs where we were introduced to some wonderful youngstock.

We were not particularly worried about a filly or gelding (psst, I wanted a filly) but did want something that was mature for it's age that hadn't been over worked as a youngster and so given time to develop without too many stresses and strains on it's joints.  There were several in the catalogue that we liked the sound of but the horse that caught our eye was a filly by Strategic Prince, unnamed but with the stable name of Poppy.

Poppy posing after the sale, if only she was looking at the camera

Poppy wasn't left with any hay or water but we managed to 'borrow' some from Ascot

Her eyes really aren't that shade of green

I'm not sure what John said to her but it may have been a bit rude for a young girl

What I liked about Poppy was her confirmation, she is also eye catching and will be more so when her summer coat has come through and she has matured a bit more.  I also liked her manners in the stable and she is the sort of horse that likes a bit of fuss which I think is important in a partnership horse.  When she was walked and trotted up for us she showed she had a bit of a sparky side to her once she got her feet on the grass which I was pleased to see.

The catalogue describes her as:

A lovely, kind filly with no soundness issues. Out of a winning dam by a top young sire who in turn is by Dansili (GB). This filly is good to shoe, box and groom. Also a good ride for a girl. Has been allowed time to mature and has seen Lingfield Park racecourse for an exercise gallop. A sure fire winner in the future with ability to match. Present trainer would be delighted to train this horse for the new owner and sadly for sale to help recover a debt.

Poppy has come from T McCarthy's yard and he said exactly the same as the catalogue, we also spoke to the groom that was with her and she was very positive as well.  I think they were slightly bemused by my excitement in seeing that she wasn't wearing shoes, they also don't turn the horses in training out so was a little confused about my questions regarding her temperament with other horses in a paddock.

John liked her breeding, Strategic Prince (8 y o standing at Coolmore Stud) is a stallion known for adding speed and himself the son of the famous stallion Dansili; this certainly is something that promises a real turn of foot but could be considered a weakness for a National Hunt horse. However, we looked closely at her dam side, and her dam sire (Josr Algahoud) is the sire of several well regarded National Hunt horses, including Charlie Mann's respected novice chaser How's Business and the hurdler Daldini, with plenty of soft ground form in the breeding.

Luckily for us Peter from PFN Transport was at the sales and he agreed to take her back to Simon's for her, we had actually bought her by the time he arrived at Ascot as the traffic was bad.  Peter handles the horses really well and gives them a good journey.  We decided we would put the lorry on the bank where there is a gate that can swing behind, we had been told she was green at loading but would go in in time.  At Ascot you can only handle a horse out of a box with either a bridle or chiffney on, Peter leant us a chiffney while he went to wait his turn to get the lorry in to position.  Once we were good to go I led her out, she posed for a couple of photographs and then we walked through the car park and up the bank.  Everything was good up until the point I was on top of the bank (with a four foot unshielded drop on to concrete either side) and the guys decided a block of wood was needed to stop the ramp from wobbling on one side. Standing on the top of a bank, with a young horse, is not the best place to be, particularly when people helpfully started dragging wheely bins around and generally clattering about.  At this point I decided we needed to get off the bank before a nasty accident occurred.  The chiffney had a long rope on it but I hate them with a passion so we spent an interesting few minutes with me trying to move her feet but not pull on the chiffney and her going 'oh my god blue wheely bins, oh my god bits of paper flapping about, oh my god everyone is leaving me and I am on my own .........'  Good learning point for me, always make sure I have  rope halter in the car with a long rope so I can use that instead of the chiffney.

As they said she would be she was a little sticky to load but we bought the gates behind her and she went in without getting wound up about things.  Peter had given her a large box instead of a partition with a big hay net so she travelled loose to Simon's and he didn't hear a peep out of her for the entire journey.  Of course she walked back down the ramp as cool as a cucumber and in to her stable so that was good.

Simon rang an hour or so later to say she was settling in ok and that he liked her, she will be in the overflow yard for a week or so before she moves in to the main yard, she will have bloods taken and will generally be checked over.  We usually get the teeth done and a visit from the physio at this point to give them a bit of an MOT, she will also go on the horse walker and Simon will start to assess her, we are already talking about the possibility of Junior Bumpers for her.

We now have the fun part of marketing her for the new partnership, I am hoping as she is barefoot already she will be of interest to some of the barefoot community.  We also get to think up a name for her, we like the prefix Loxley and her dam is Haiti Dancer so I suggested choosing the name of a dance beginning with 'L', sadly neither John or Ian liked 'Loxleys Lambada' I have no idea why ;)

More info can be found on our website www.epds-racing.co.uk or via email of info@epds-racing.co.uk.