The first of the Best Turned Out competition was yesterday at Huntingdon (27/1/12) in the 2.10pm Handicap Hurdle. John reports that there were some very nicely turned out horses in the paddock and 9 to choose from which meant the top three choices were particularly well deserved.
The winning horses/trainers were:
1st - Spanish Cruise, C E Longsdon
2nd - Turbo Du Ranch, W Greatrex
3rd - Old Way, Miss V Williams
Unfortunately I don't as yet have the names of the three grooms but as soon as I do I will update the blog.
Congratulations to all three yards, you now have your first points on the table with 11 races to go.
Saturday 28 January 2012
Thursday 26 January 2012
EPDS Racing Welfare Best Turned Out Series
What with one thing and another it has been an exciting few weeks in EPDS Central. One of the exciting projects that we have been working on is the EPDS Racing Welfare Best Turned Out. A few weeks ago EPDS group sponsored the entire card at Huntingdon Racecourse, as part of this sponsorship we gave over two races to Racing Welfare as we are keen supporters of the work that they do. During the day all of the EPDS Partnership members enjoyed going in to the paddock and judging the best turned out for each race as well as presenting the prizes.
A best turned out is a lads way of getting recognition for all the care and attention they give their horses both on and off the course, as well as this is puts a bit of cash in their pockets, the prize is usually £25.00 so it is worth winning. We took our job seriously and often found it hard to decide between two or three horses in the paddock.
During and after the day we got chatting about how much fun we had had, and how nice it was to award the prizes. One trainer actually came up to thank us saying it was the first time the lad had ever plaited his horse so to be rewarded with a BTO on his first effort was great. Talking to Racing Welfare about how it would be good to do something bigger we hit upon the idea of a BTO series throughout the year that would ultimately benefit an entire yard as well as individual lads.
The idea is this, one race at one course per month (so 12 races over the year) we award a special BTO prize, instead of one lad winning we award a first, second and third with cash prizes (£50 to the winner) along with a gilet. Each yard that comes first, second, third is awarded points and the yard at the end of the year with the most points gets a cash prize for all the staff of £1000 and a trophy.
The racecourses have been great and all the ones we wanted have come on board, the dates/locations for the series are:
Huntingdon- January 27th, Warwick- February 11th,Carlisle- March 18th, 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 (Final)
This means the first one is tomorrow at Huntingdon, the course where the idea was formed in the first place!
We will let you know the winners and will be keeping a running total of the scores as we go through the year.
For more information about Racing Welfare please see here: http://www.racingwelfare.co.uk/pressReleases_detail.php?ID=51
A best turned out is a lads way of getting recognition for all the care and attention they give their horses both on and off the course, as well as this is puts a bit of cash in their pockets, the prize is usually £25.00 so it is worth winning. We took our job seriously and often found it hard to decide between two or three horses in the paddock.
During and after the day we got chatting about how much fun we had had, and how nice it was to award the prizes. One trainer actually came up to thank us saying it was the first time the lad had ever plaited his horse so to be rewarded with a BTO on his first effort was great. Talking to Racing Welfare about how it would be good to do something bigger we hit upon the idea of a BTO series throughout the year that would ultimately benefit an entire yard as well as individual lads.
The idea is this, one race at one course per month (so 12 races over the year) we award a special BTO prize, instead of one lad winning we award a first, second and third with cash prizes (£50 to the winner) along with a gilet. Each yard that comes first, second, third is awarded points and the yard at the end of the year with the most points gets a cash prize for all the staff of £1000 and a trophy.
The racecourses have been great and all the ones we wanted have come on board, the dates/locations for the series are:
Huntingdon- January 27th, Warwick- February 11th,Carlisle- March 18th, 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 (Final)
This means the first one is tomorrow at Huntingdon, the course where the idea was formed in the first place!
We will let you know the winners and will be keeping a running total of the scores as we go through the year.
For more information about Racing Welfare please see here: http://www.racingwelfare.co.uk/pressReleases_detail.php?ID=51
Wednesday 18 January 2012
It's Tomorrow! (Again)
Another exciting day ahead, Lisselan Amazon runs in the 1.50pm at Taunton tomorrow! This will be her second run over hurdles after her trip out last week. Last time she parted company with Gerard at the fifth fence, this time obviously we are hoping she will have learnt from that experience and will jump cleanly round.
Her jockey for this outing is Luke Kilgarriff, Luke was an apprentice jockey and then left racing to train at Bath Spa to be a teacher under the JETS scheme. This scheme supports people coming out of the racing industry in re-training for another career. Luke still rides and schools for Simon during the uni holidays and has worked a lot with both Amazon and Shilpa. He now holds an amateur licence and I am really pleased we are able to give him the chance to ride for us, even if it does mean he is probably bunking off a few lectures ;) He is a lovely chap and I hope they both have a lot of fun tomorrow, unfortunately I will be watching from the bookies near my work, not from the course.
Emma who is a member of the Racing Club and an excellent photographer has kindly agreed to take some piccies tomorrow so check back here for a full report and photos of the day.
Her jockey for this outing is Luke Kilgarriff, Luke was an apprentice jockey and then left racing to train at Bath Spa to be a teacher under the JETS scheme. This scheme supports people coming out of the racing industry in re-training for another career. Luke still rides and schools for Simon during the uni holidays and has worked a lot with both Amazon and Shilpa. He now holds an amateur licence and I am really pleased we are able to give him the chance to ride for us, even if it does mean he is probably bunking off a few lectures ;) He is a lovely chap and I hope they both have a lot of fun tomorrow, unfortunately I will be watching from the bookies near my work, not from the course.
Emma who is a member of the Racing Club and an excellent photographer has kindly agreed to take some piccies tomorrow so check back here for a full report and photos of the day.
Tuesday 10 January 2012
Taunton 9th January
It was an exciting, exhausting, emotional day (well for me at least), both Lisselan Amazon and Shilpa got in to their races and Simon said we were good to go, so we went.
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.
Sunday 8 January 2012
Tomorrow!!!!!
Well John and I joked that Maisey (Lisselan Amazon) would race before Shilpa, and she is, by 90 minutes!! Yes, both girls are running tomorrow for the first time owned by us, and in Maisey's case the first time on a UK racecourse and over jumps.
We are really pleased and excited and I am particularly happy that they will be travelling to Taunton together and will be support for each other, they are very close friends now. Both girls are being ridden by Gerard Tumelty. Our only hope is that they give a good account of themselves although I am sure all in the partnership and racing club will be having a little flutter.
I'm having that anxious mum fluttery stomach feeling and not sure I will be able to watch, apparently Henrietta Knight always hides behind the stands so if I see her I am going to ask her for her best hiding places.
We will let everyone know how it goes tomorrow.
We are really pleased and excited and I am particularly happy that they will be travelling to Taunton together and will be support for each other, they are very close friends now. Both girls are being ridden by Gerard Tumelty. Our only hope is that they give a good account of themselves although I am sure all in the partnership and racing club will be having a little flutter.
I'm having that anxious mum fluttery stomach feeling and not sure I will be able to watch, apparently Henrietta Knight always hides behind the stands so if I see her I am going to ask her for her best hiding places.
We will let everyone know how it goes tomorrow.
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