Winner!! Homer Run wins @ Southwell. Red Not Blue comes 3rd at Newbury

                 

I’ll start with Red Not Blue – well we did exactly what Paddy Brennan suggested after he rode Red Not Blue at Cheltenham in November which was that he should be aimed at The Festival in March possibly in the Pertemps.  So we ran him in a Pertemps Series Qualifier at Newbury over 3m last Friday.  The race was according to The Racing Post ‘the hottest qualifier yet’.  The rules have changed this year and he had to finish in the first eight to qualify for March which I felt would be a big ask considering how many runners there were and how competitive the race was.   Well, he came from the back with a storming run under Dominic Elsworth to finish 3^rd at a price of 66-1 (proving Paddy spot on!).  The Racing Post said ‘Red Not Blue ran on in dour fashion’ and when I saw Paddy at Southwell on Tuesday his words were ‘Red Not Blue is a real dude!’.   Red Not Blue runs without shoes.

And now on to even better news of Homer Run winning at Southwell on Tuesday (without shoes).  After Homer Run ran at Uttoxeter in June this year, he finished a bit jarred up; he was running and training with shoes on at that time, as we couldn’t get him to go barefoot.  I think he couldn’t go barefoot at the time because sometime before this he had stomach ulcers.  Since we have sorted the ulcers out and given him time and a break in the summer, he has taken to barefoot without any problems and his feet are now very tough.  We were really happy with Homer Run at home so I was hopeful (so long as I could persuade EPDS Racing to make the trip to Southwell).  We were very lucky that it paid off with Homer winning, being given a great ride by Paddy Brennan.  Homer’s price tumbled before the off which wasn’t our money as we are not a gambling yard, although John Powell of EPDS racing had a huge wad of cash when paying for the drinks after the race!

            I am very grateful to the owners for being patient with this horse and many thanks to everybody for your kind messages of well done and thank yous.  We are lucky to have a good little team down here but ultimately it is the horses that we have to thank.  Hopefully this bodes well for the rest of the season as we have a few new horses yet to arrive.