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.
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