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.