Simon Earle Racing: Runners - Huntingdon, Lingfield and Taunton

We’ve had an interesting couple of weeks with the runners and a busy time. Headly’s Bridge ran very well at Huntingdon after being off the racecourse for a long time. He came over from Ireland as a big 4 year old the year before last with decent form. It wasn’t long after his arrival that he threw a curb behind, so we decided to stop with him and let him develop. He is a lovely horse who I am sure will do well for his owner, Mrs Penelope Bridel. We were pleased to see in The Racing Post after his run: ‘He was still going ok leaving the back straight and shaped with some promise for the future’. He grew a tremendous amount during his break last year, and is shaping up nicely as a chaser in the making.
Chord also ran at Huntingdon and hated the ground and to be honest didn’t enjoy it, so we have decided to retire him from racing and find him a good home where he can finally relax and not have the pressures put on him by being a racehorse. I am very fond of him and I admire him for what he has done for us. He deserves someone to care for him and I hope he goes to a private home so he can enjoy the rest of his life.

It was a great day at Huntingdon as our new owners have formed a racing partnership and club called EPDS Racing (www.epds-racing.co.uk) and had sponsored most of the races at the meeting, so having two runners at Huntingdon was a great experience. Luke Kilgarriff led up both Headly’s Bridge and Chord and rather cheekily won best turned out for Headly’s Bridge. Well-done Luke! I understand there are still shares available in both EPDS Racing’s horses: Shilpa and Lisselan Amazon, so do check out their website and follow them on Twitter – more to follow below…

Opera Prince ran a lovely race to finish 3^rd at Lingfield on the all weather, over a new distance of 1m 5f. It was a test to see if he could get the trip and we were very pleased with the result. David Probert rode him and felt he didn’t get to the bottom of him and if he could have got out off the rail and had a bit of a clearer run earlier, then he may have been even closer. He was only beaten 1¾ lengths so we were delighted.

Onto this week and I had great fun at Taunton on Monday with EPDS Racing. Both their horses were running and first up was Lisselan Amazon (Maisey as she is known at home) who was having her first run for us, over hurdles and in this country. Maisey was jumping super until unseating Gerard Tumelty in the back straight (which was nobody’s fault) but she continued to gallop round and have a great time. She came back full of beans and genuinely having loved the whole experience. She is only just 5 yrs old and we aim on running her again very soon and possibly back at Taunton.

Shilpa then ran in the last race, a 0-115 handicap hurdle. We knew she wasn’t 100% fit and wouldn’t like the ground but she still managed to run on and finish 4^th (nearly getting 3^rd!) which has made us all think - what will happen when we get everything right??!! We have a great deal to look forward to with her.

It was my first day racing with EPDS and I think it is important that owners have a good time and enjoy the experience. Taunton is the head of the partnership’s favourite racecourse and it was also his birthday so it was rather nice his first two horses ran and happened to be there on this day and, to cap it all off it ended very positively. It was also great to meet the new faces of the partnership and club and welcome everyone on board. Taunton’s owners and trainers bar is always a fun place to be and I met up with a few old faces from my riding days, in particular Godfrey – who likes to have a good time and once had a horse in training which he called ‘Up The Pub’, totally typical and where I ended up that night!