Amazon's race was first of our two at 2.40pm, our hope for this race was that she would get round, she has only been jumping a few weeks and this was her first time over jumps, first time on a UK racecourse, first time over that distance and first time racing for 230+ days. Gerard was instructed to give her plenty of time to see the fences and generally keep her out of trouble. Unfortunately watching the race back it got a little bit scrappy at the back, they were all Novices after all, and Amazon hit the top of fence 5 , pecked a bit on landing and Gerard carried on going and hit the deck.
Amazon bless her carried on going without him, went through the finish post and got turned round by some of the placing horses and bought back to the paddock. She looked like she had had a great time, ears pricked and if you can describe a horse as smiling that was her. Once I got over my initial ~gulp~ and had shouted 'don't step on your reins' at her as she went past me on the course, I had to smile at her demeanour as she was led back to the stables, she looked like she had been at the best party ever. Next time Maisey finishing with Gerard on top would be good, I suppose if nothing else it christened the new silks.
A few photos:
Katie, Holly and Amazon going to the paddock
Holly and Amazon in the paddock
Katie, Holly and Simon saddling Amazon
Gerard, Holly and Amazon in the paddock
Gerard and Amazon on way to start
Circling just before the start
Circling at the start
Plan for Amazon is to run her again quite quickly as long as she is not too tired from her race yesterday, we need her to run three times to get a handicap. Hopefully she will run again at Taunton as this will be the best learning experience for her, exactly replicating what she did yesterday but this time picking her feet up a bit more!
We then had to wait for the last race of the day, 4.10pm for Shilpa, which in some ways was a very long wait and in others went really quickly. Again this was Shilpa's first time racing for us and her first time on a course for around five months. My hope was just that she would get round safe and sound, the others in the partnership had a cheeky small each way bet but on the whole we had no great expectations other than to see where we were with her. Well what can I say, she ran a cracking race, looked really good jumping apart from at the last when she landed a little four footed which lost her some ground. She then ran on to get fourth which meant that although we didn't see a return on our each way bets, we did as owners get prize money!!! Simon was really pleased and Gerard who had ridden her before for previous trainers said some very complimentary things about the change in her way of going and how much more settled she was with her racing. This is great because that is exactly what Simon has been working on at home.
Some pictures of Shilpa:
Katie, Holly and Shilpa on the way to the paddock
Holly and Shilpa in the paddock
Holly and Shilpa in the paddock
Gerard, Shilpa and Holly about to go to the start
Gerard, Shilpa and Holly about to go to the start
Gerard and Shilpa on way to start
Gerard and Shilpa circling with the others at the start
Gerard and Shilpa at the start
Gerard and Shilpa at the start
Shilpa smiling at the camera
Can we go yet?
Plan for Shilpa once we have assessed her this week is to maybe get one more race in at the end of Jan/beginning of Feb as long as the ground stays good (she prefers good ground to soft). She will then have a few weeks off doing some more intensive muscle building training (aka dressage!) and then come back out again for the Spring/Summer season where the ground should be more to her liking.
I was really proud of both girls and think we have some very exciting times ahead with both of them. All of us in the racing partnership and the club who were there yesterday had a great time, Taunton is a very friendly racecourse and it was fantastic to have 'access all areas' owners badges, I think I can safely say that myself and Natalie saw every part of the course, including the burger van (twice!).
We still have a couple of shares left in Shilpa and spaces in the racing club for Amazon, further info can be found at www.epds-racing.co.uk.
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