EPDS visit including Shilpa & her filly foal

                Last month, it was great to get an opportunity to go and visit the EPDS horses.  We started the afternoon by visiting Shilpa and her new born filly foal by Kayf Tara.  Shilpa won for us at Fakenham back in December 2012 and was the first horse bought by EPDS racing.  She then sadly struck into herself at Southwell and damaged her tendon just above the boot.  After a recovery it was decided the best thing to do was to retire her and let her have a lovely life as a broodmare.  She was quite a speedy mare for National Hunt racing so I think the owners’ decision to use Kayf Tara is a good one and hopefully the off spring might have plenty of stamina.  It was lovely to see her so happy, relaxed and enjoying being a good mother.  Her filly foal is very bold and inquisitive, as well as being very well handled and looked after.  She’s a little cracker.

Shilpa above (photo taken whilst in training with us)

Proud owner John Powell with Shilpa & her Kayf Tara filly foal

                  We then went on to the yard near Reading where they keep the retired horses and those horses on their holidays.  We saw Lisselan Amazon looking really very well indeed and also Benozzo Gozzoli who is looked after by Ellie also looking well and who has been shown in hand recently for the first time.  Last on our list was Loxley Mezile who also looked great.  These horses are so lucky to find owners like EPDS who care for their horses so much, even when their racing careers are over.

                Mollie enjoyed a nice ride on one of the Shetland ponies, I think called Oz whilst Winston looked on – fab little ponies.  Thank you to John, Tracey & Ellie for showing us around the EPDS set up.  A great afternoon had by us all.

                I returned to EPDS’ yard on 2^nd May to pick up Daliance and drop off Money Maid for her summer holidays.  Money Maid settled in very well with Benozzo Gozzoli and I am sure she will enjoy her summer break.  Daliance has arrived back at the yard well and has started on the walker before resuming on hopefully a successful racing campaign.  He is still only 6 years old and has run on the flat, over hurdles and over fences with a total of 27 starts of which 18 of these he has been placed in the first four.  He is clearly very tough and hopefully will come on and improve after a decent break.  He currently holds an official rating of 74 on the flat, 102 over hurdles and 107 over fences.  We are very excited about having him in the yard and looking forward to next season.  There are shares available – 5% share is just £130 per month all inclusive and no buy-in – sounds like a great deal to me! If you wish to find out more, please contact EPDS Racing www.epds-racing.co.uk via their website or ring John Powell tel: 07812 342192

The end of our season

The end of our season:

                Our season has drawn to a close early as we don’t have any horses that would appreciate summer jumping so we won’t be having any runners until the Autumn.  This season was always going to be tough as we lost four of our best horses of which thankfully one, Money Maid, is going to return next season.  Sadly losing two wonderfully gifted horses from injuries in one year was pretty gutting to say the least but we have a lot of positives to take away as well as memories.

                Our horses this past season were mostly youngsters gaining experience for next season and I have been pleased with their progress.  Running through each horse:

Daliance:  is with his owners on rest and recuperation before shortly coming to the yard.  He was bought last year by his owners, EPDS Racing, as a long term project.  He won last time out over fences for his previous trainer (even with the hand-brake on) and is rated 74 on the flat, 102 over hurdles and 107 over fences.  At only 6 he has already run 27 times so this break will do him no end of good.  We are very much looking forward to him coming to the yard and are hoping he can improve.

Get Back To Me:  was 3 weeks off a run and just wasn’t right behind after work one day.  He was only 1/5ths lame but we called in Buffy, our vet, and she diagnosed a stress fracture of his tibia so he is out now until next season.  This is very frustrating as he was a winner waiting to happen.  We will just have to wait now.  Stress fractures always sound scary but if they are dealt with properly then the prognosis is very good. 

Get Back To Me (right) walking down the grass gallops with Gustav

Gustav: is a lovely, big horse who whilst is 5 on paper, he isn’t 5 until June so is still only 4.  I felt he wasn’t going as well as I know he should at home and we eventually found that he had a billowing soft pallet so he needs to have a wind operation this summer.  This was an unusual case as he never made a noise at home.  It is best that this op is done now whilst he is young and we will have a nice horse to look forward to next season.

Gustav looking powerful at the bottom of the grass gallops

Headly’s Bridge: is currently being let down slowly and will be getting turned out shortly as the soft ground has now gone for him.  He has done very well for Mrs Bridel winning nearly £40,000 in prize money.  The spring grass is looking fantastic and will do the horses no world of good – we call it Dr Green! Headly won a £15,000 chase first time out under top weight at Exeter which was fantastic. We then stepped him up in class to class 2 & class 1 races.  At Chepstow he wasn’t quite right and at Newbury in the Greatwood Gold Cup he just didn’t get his ground, he ideally needs heavy ground.  After winning at Exeter he went up to a handicap rating of 135 and has now dropped to 130 so is back on a decent mark for next season.  I am sure he is good enough to win a big handicap when the conditions are right for him.

Headly's Bridge (above & below) on his way to winning first time out at Exeter under top weight with Paddy Brennan on board

 Kavanaghs Corner:  was in the process of running on and finishing 4^th at Newton Abbot over a trip too short and then something stopped him.  We have since found that he needs to have a wind operation this summer.  This is in some ways good as we know that it can be sorted and we should have a very well handicapped horse for next season.  He is a lovely looking horse who is a future 3 mile chaser in soft ground, and I expect him to do very well over hurdles beforehand.
   

Kavanagh's Corner (above) in the pre-parade ring at Kempton

Kavanagh's Corner at Newton Abbot with Andrew Thornton on board

Money Maid: has been the perfect of patients as she recovers from a tendon injury.  She has been on the walker up to 2hrs a day and is now turned out for the best of the spring grass.  She is another well handicapped horse that we will look forward to running next season.

The beautiful Money Maid above

Water Rail:  I am happy with him.  We probably should have given him more time between his runs as he got a little light but I wanted to get 3 runs into him before the ground dried out to try and get him handicapped.  The ground has now well and truly dried out as I can’t see any rain and the temperatures seem to be rising!  The handicapper hasn’t given him a mark so he is being let down and will be turned out on the Spring grass.  It was clear that he wants a lot further than the 2 miles he has been racing over and to be honest I thought he would be pulled up with a circuit to go but he kept going (with his ears pricked all the way!).  We would expect to see plenty of improvement next year.  He is also a chaser in the making and is for sale to stay within the yard.

Water Rail in the paddock at Newton Abbot

Zakatal: went back home to Yorkshire after his last run at Wincanton where he ran very well to finish 3^rd when the trip was too short for him.  He is a soft ground horse and we were unlikely to get that.  Zak gets the best of everything with great treatments & grub from his caring owners Gill & David Furman when at home so I am sure he is enjoying his time off. Some stunning photographs below of him at Wincanton.

Zakatal on his way to the start at Wincanton with Alice Mills on board (and below)

Update on our recent runners: Zakatal, Water Rail & Kavanaghs Corner

                I will start the update with Saturday’s runners at Wincanton and Zakatal.  We ran Zak at Huntingdon 9 days earlier where he finished 5^th which was an improvement on his previous run at Exeter back in November.  It was clear at Huntingdon that he was struggling with his breathing late on in the race due to his awkward head carriage.  He was fresh as paint after the race so something was stopping him.  So it was decided that we would run him at Wincanton on Saturday with a tongue strap on but over a trip that was too short for him (2m 6f) as it was the only race close to home and we thought it was worth a try.  The handicapper had also dropped him 5lbs for his Huntingdon run.  He was ridden very well by Alice Mills and he ran on late to finish 3^rd of 17.  A few people backed him each way and gladly they were rewarded.  Zak was so pleased with himself afterwards and let’s hope that this good run gives him some confidence.  It was especially good as both his owners, David Furman & John Sugarman had managed to make the long journey from Yorkshire.  I hope the better run from Zak meant that the journey back home was a little more pleasant! 
                As well as Zakatal running at Wincanton on Saturday we also ran our own homebred, Water Rail, in a novice hurdle over 2m.  He has never been anywhere other than here at home in his life so he coped with the entire preliminaries very well.  He ran very green in the race and for the first few hurdles he was looking at the crowd by the obstacles. He too was given a lovely introduction to racing by Alice Mills who wasn’t hard on him.  He ran on nicely from the back and The Racing Post said “Water Rail got well behind at one stage, and had plenty on after three out, but was noted keeping on from two out”.  Alice mentioned that the more he did the more the penny dropped which is an excellent sign.  This 6 yr old is for sale to stay in the yard and we have given him plenty of time as he is a big, scopey horse.  He should do nothing but improve and if you are interested in learning more then do please contact me.

                It is fantastic having runners locally at Wincanton (where as a child with The Pony Club of the South & West Wilts I used to camp for a week) which is only half an hour away from the yard.  Wincanton is a great West Country course with a very knowledgeable crowd that always has competitive racing.  We were fortunate to have friends and family join us for the day.  It was also great to meet up with some owners that I used to ride for many years ago called James & Olivia Scott.  They used to own a good horse called Judges Fancy that ran in the top staying hurdles.  James & Olivia were taking their grand-daughter racing for the first time; let’s hope she enjoyed it and becomes involved in this wonderful sport in years to come.  She certainly had a good intro from her grandparents. 

                    Next on to Kavanaghs Corner who ran in a 3m novice hurdle at Ffos Las in bottomless ground on 10^th Feb.  Casey was far too keen, for far too long, and half carted Andrew Thornton around.  There was no way in that ground over that trip, that he would have kept on going so we will go back to basics and run him over a shorter trip and teach him to settle before going back up in trip to 3 miles again.  By finishing 4^th however hopefully we just need the one more run to be handicapped.  Whilst frustrating, it was a good learning curve and we know so much more about the horse.

Zakatal & Kavanaghs Corner at the bottom of the grass gallops

Zakatal enjoying a gridwork session with Alice Mills prior to his run

Water Rail in his gridwork session

Video of the first two hurdles Water Rail ever jumped

Waiting nervously as an owner! with Roly Rickcord & Anna Giddings in the paddock at Wincanton

Kavanaghs Corner update

                It was a great shame that we were unable to run Kavanaghs Corner at Chepstow yesterday in a novice hurdle as it looked an ideal opportunity for him.  He was schooled on Tuesday by Andrew Thornton and over-reached above his tendon boot and just took the hair off behind his knee, not even breaking the skin luckily.  I wasn’t worried at all and it looked superficial.  The evening before his race I noticed some inflammation and a slight tenderness high up on his tendon which set the alarm bells ringing.  After speaking with Buffy we decided to see how he was in the morning.  No change in the morning so she very kindly gave up cooking her father a lovely lunch and dashed to the yard (she said ‘he can have dinner instead!’) and came to scan him.  Fortunately the ultrasound scan was normal, just a bit of mild bruising.  Casey is now on the easy list, steady cantering away until the bruising subsides and then we can gallop so we are hopefully going to be back racing in a couple of weeks if all goes according to plan.  It was such a shame as his owners, Norman & Bridget, had flown all the way from their home in Spain to see him run!

                If I am in any doubt then I don’t like to run.  In this case the bruising could have weakened the structures of the tendon and with the pressure that they are put under racing, things could have been made worse.  It is disappointing but thankfully good news in the end.  At least the owners have got some more air miles!  We all had a good cup of tea and a chat yesterday afternoon and Norman & Bridget managed to see Casey lunged and on the walker.  Photographs below of Andrew Thornton schooling from Tuesday.

Kavanaghs Corner with Andrew Thornton on board

Zakatal (grey) with Kavanaghs Corner

Kavanaghs Corner

Yard Update

                It has been quiet for us with sending out runners as it appears that a bug came into the yard.  As many of you may have seen, Headly’s Bridge pulled up when fancied at Chepstow back on 27^th December when he ran in a Class 2 handicap chase.  I was disappointed to say the least so had him scoped at the racecourse immediately after he ran and sure enough the scope showed that he had mucopus in his lungs.  We then scoped the others back at the yard and they have all showed the same.  Thankfully it is a low grade infection but it is enough to affect them when they run so the best thing was to pop them on antibiotics and go steady with them.  We have also disinfected the yard just in case.  Headly’s Bridge has finished his course of antibiotics, so too has Kavanaghs Corner and the others are steady cantering away.  We shouldn’t loose too much fitness and I am certainly happy that we didn’t run any when they were not quite right.  Putting fast work into, or running horses that aren’t quite right causes a lot more problems, so it is a quieter time for most of them at the moment whilst keeping them ticking over.  Very frustrating for all but the horses’ welfare comes first. 

               

Below is a brief update on all the horses:

Get Back To Me:  has had his wind operation and is back trotting.  We are looking forward to him running in a handicap hurdle on better ground.  He wouldn’t appreciate the ground as it currently is so it was a good time to get his wind op done.  He too has benefitted from a break and has put on good condition after his operation.

Gustav:  has recently turned 5 yrs old and has been progressing well recently.  He will very soon have his first grid work session and hopefully he will be set to make his debut in the UK in February.  He has had a few niggles since his arrival and has also been a little backward so it has taken time to get him right.  Hopefully we are now on the right track with him.  He is a big, imposing horse by Mahler and I’m excited about getting him onto the racecourse for The Plum Merchants.

Headly’s Bridge:  has finished his course of antibiotics. I’m pleased to say he is enjoying his mini-break and I’m looking forward to getting him back on a racecourse in February if all goes according to plan.

Kavanaghs Corner:  has settled in well now and has also finished his antibiotics.  He arrived from the sales with an infection and was in quarantine whilst getting right.  He is getting stuck in to plenty of work and we may well see him in a novice hurdle in the coming weeks.  A cracking, strong and exciting horse for Norman Cahill & Bridget O’Flynn that was bought at the Cheltenham sales back in November and he will be having his first run for us.

Money Maid:  is now on the walker and has been for a few weeks.  She continues to have treatment from Roger Meacock (Natural Healing Solutions www.naturalhealingsolutions.co.uk ) for her leg as well as his supplements and I am really thrilled with her progress.  Her leg has no inflammation or heat, and to be honest it all looks completely normal now.  You would be hard pushed to tell she had a problem.  Roger is also very happy with her progress.  The plan remains the same and to turn her away in the spring and bring her back to work after a scan in July/August time.  She is in great heart (and is still looking beautiful!).

Water Rail:  is our homebred and he is also not far off his first run.  We may run him in a bumper for education but he jumps for fun and as he has just turned 6 yrs old we may crack on with him and run him in a novice hurdle.  He is a big horse so might be better suited to this route rather than NH flat races.  He is available to lease and is 2-3 weeks off running.

Zakatal:  has improved a great deal since we found out that he has been intolerant to salt and he has been put on potassium chloride.  He too has been on antibiotics but we are hoping that he will be running the first week of February.  He is in super form.

And lastly, our Sakhee foal born last summer that many may have seen on Twitter is now a yearling and has been weaned.  He is currently with some past owners of ours, Derrick & Rosie Scott who own East Lynch Stud near Minehead (www.eastlynchstud.co.uk) .  He is doing well (despite being gelded recently!) and is enjoying running and socialising with others.  His mum is back out in the park with fellow friends (rather pleased to be rid of him!).  Derrick & Rosie’s stud is in a beautiful position between the coast and Exmoor and has just the most incredible views.  It is an absolutely stunning place and they do their youngstock well.  We are hoping to visit him again soon.

Gustav

                Earlier in the summer we had another new arrival to the yard in 4 yr old Gustav.  He was purchased for The Plum Merchants to replace the retired Red Not Blue.  He was bought from Timmy Hyde in Ireland who is a pin hooker who mostly buys expensive flat bred foals and sells them as yearlings.  He would also buy a few 3 yr olds to run in point to points as four year olds and then sell on.  No horse stays with him for more than a year and it is key to his business that he sells on horses that do well for their new owners and plenty have.

                Gus ran in one maiden point to point in May where he finished 3^rd (beaten 9 lengths) and looking at the video I thought he might have won if he had jumped better, but then his price would have been considerably more considering what a good looking horse he is.  His mother ran in France and won as a 4 yr old and is a half sister to top class jumpers in France with black type winning and placed form.  He is by Mahler who is having a good start with his early jumps progeny and Gus is a very good looking horse with enormous ears!

                Gustav lost a fair bit of weight coming over from Ireland back in the summer so we gave him a minimum of a month being turned out before we got going with him as he is a big horse and is only 4 years old.  We then had a few minor niggles with him when getting going but he is now cantering and the plan will be to run him end of January/February time if all goes to plan.

                Every horse I’ve had for The Plum Merchants has won and The Plums have been great supporters of the yard over the years.  They have been in the winners’ enclosure at Cheltenham (but in 2^nd place) and the aim is to rise to the No 1 spot and of course at The Festival. 

                We have taken our time so far with Gustav to do what is right for the horse and then hopefully we will see him repay us with good results when he runs.  Patience, let the horse come to himself and then he (hopefully) will repay you!

Gustav

New horse - Kavanaghs Corner arrives to the yard

                We were delighted to go to The Brightwells sales at Cheltenham racecourse in November to secure the purchase of Kavanaghs Corner (stable name Casey).  Casey is a cracking 5 yr old by Coroner and has been purchased for Bridget O’Flynn and Norman Cahill.  Bridget and Norman are past owners with the yard and owned the lovely Outside The Box with us a few years ago.  It is great to welcome them back as owners.

                Kavanaghs Corner came 2^nd in his latest point to point in Ireland on 8^th November and was beaten only a neck by the winner, Stiletto.  Incidentally Stiletto was also at the sales and was the top lot of the day going for a whopping £130,000 so we think Kavanaghs Corner was relatively good value!  Casey was flying after the last and in another few strides he would have won the race as Stiletto was tiring.  Sometimes the winner of these point to points isn’t necessarily the best horse in the race and we obviously hope this is the case here.  Casey jumped like a buck and put his head down and battled which showed he tries very hard.  Talent is a waste if that person or animal doesn’t try.  His battling spirit is something that really caught our eye.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmRPZw2-hyc

                Norman & Bridget gave us a very simple order….a future 3 mile chaser who goes in the soft and can go on to win the Gold Cup followed by The Grand National – no pressure then!  What we do know is that he should be a future 3 mile chaser and that he definitely likes it soft as is was soft to heavy when he ran in Ireland.

                He is taking his time to settle into his new environment and has now finished his quarantine and is in the main yard.  He is the type of horse that once he has done something once or twice he then trusts the situation and starts to settle.  Physically he is one of the strongest horses I have ever sat on which is fantastic.  He is a powerhouse in everything he does; even walking around the walker he shows great power.  We are hoping that he will run January/February time. 

                I have been looking for quite a long time for the right horse and have visited Ireland twice and seen over 25 horses but nothing really grabbed my eye and the one that did had a price tag of £100,000!  I gave Norman & Bridget a list of 10 horses at the sales that I liked from looking at their point to point videos and form.  Out of those 10, they actually picked out Kavanaghs Corner beforehand.  We took our friends, Tor & Roly Rickcord to the sales and Tor is a good judge of a horse as she produces young ponies, breeds a bit and has also competed eventing and she took herself off to have a look at a few horses.  Lot 49 caught her eye from a distance and she went over and had a good look at him without knowing that he was on our shortlist.  She came back and begged me to go and look at lot 49 (he was the last on my list to look at) and we loved what we saw.  Buffy, our vet, was at the sales and vetted a few for us and it has to be one of the first times that she has said there was nothing wrong with Casey and that we would want to get him so there was quite a bit of fate surrounding his purchase!  To be honest we never thought we would get him as there were so many trainers and buyers pulling him out.  He hardly ever stood in his box! 

Kavanaghs Corner was sold at Brightwells by Aidan Fitzgerald from his Cobajay Stables in Carlow, Ireland.  There was an excellent article on Aidan in the Irish Point to Point Weekly about how he takes his time with his youngsters and that patience and a good feeding regime works well for him.  He has sold some excellent youngsters to top trainers (Bordini who won his bumper and is in training with Willie Mullins, Thomas Edison – winner of the Galway hurdle this year, Glencove Marina, Roberto Goldback, Vic Venturi, Last Instalment, Hidden Cyclone etc) and his approach to his horses is something that stands Casey in even better stead.  Hopefully Casey will be lucky for everyone and especially his owners Bridget & Norman.  It is a pleasure to have him in the yard.