Got Attitude should go well in the Troytown
I don’t have a good record with flights. Regular readers will recall the trouble I had thanks to the volcanic ash but I wasn’t thinking about that when planning the trip to London on Tuesday for the Cartier Awards, which are the end of year awards for flat racing in England.
I was invited because Pathfork was nominated in the two-year-old colt category and Laughing Lashes in the two-year-old filly one. It’s nice to get that recognition across the water, particularly when neither of them have run there and when two or three of the top trainers in England didn’t have any nominations.
We were lucky to make it in the end. I had planned that we’d arrive in plenty of time, get the hair done and have a drink with a few people before we’d go. But this time fog replaced ash and our departure from Dublin was delayed. We didn’t land at our hotel until 7.30pm, which was when we were to be at the Dorchester for drinks but we changed quickly and got there for just after eight.
It was a great night and they were done incredibly well. The dinner was lovely and then the awards were given out after that. It was a good night for the Irish, with Misty For Me winning the two-year-old filly award and Starspangledbanner champion sprinter, while Rite of Passage was named champion stayer.
It was no surprise that Snow Fairy got the nod for the three-year-old filly category and that was half an Irish winner too, having been born and reared here. She is owned by Anamoine Ltd, who I train for and I actually trained Snow Fairy’s dam, Woodland Dream.
Goldikova was named Horse of the Year and I don’t think anyone could have any arguments with that.
There were no problems getting home thankfully, apart from the large hangover, and it was back to the grindstone straight away.
The Bull Hayes was probably a bit unlucky in Thurles on Thursday as he tripped on landing over a hurdle down the back but Tadhg beat him fair and square. He ran a good race so at least he’s being consistent. The ground was pretty heavy after all the rain and while he wouldn’t mind flat racing soft ground, heavy jumps ground in November is a little bit different.
We were thrilled with Oscars Well in Punchestown last Sunday. He won very easily, by nine lengths and he’s now going to run in the Grade 1 hurdle at Navan over two and a half miles. It may be a bit ambitious but we’ve always thought a lot of him and for him to do it that well, we thought we might as well have a go because he’s on the upgrade.
I’m hoping Falcon Island will come on for his run in Down Royal at Gowran today, while in the bumper I have two who both disappointed me last time out. So hopefully Art Music and True Character will redeem themselves.
At Navan Got Attitude runs in the Troytown and I’d be expecting a good run from him because he won well in Galway. Meitheamh was very unlucky to slip and unseat Barry on the flat last time in a listed hurdle and on that run, she should go close in the maiden. We also have Ricardian in that race. He’s a lovely big Exit To Nowhere horse of Liam and Kathleen Quinn’s. He’s really a chaser and would probably want a bit further so we’ll see how he gets on.
It might only be November but Cheltenham is still on the tip of everybody’s tongue it seems. There is more hype now than there used to be but that’s because people have the media at the tip of their fingers now between mobile phones and the internet.
Some people think it detracts from the big races that occur before it but I don’t agree. There’s a pattern programme that all the top horses tend to follow and they’re trying to win each one of those races. They are important in their own right.
Of course any horse that wins a novice chase gets a quote for the RSA or the Arkle but that’s just the way it is. Papers have to write about something! If you read the headline in the Racing Post yesterday you’d have thought they were never going to be able to race at Fairyhouse again but I have no doubt they’ll be racing there next week. It’s their biggest meeting apart from the Easter festival when the Grand National is on and they’ll use the inside track. It’s as I said last week, you need to read below the headline to get the real story.
It’s shaping up to be a great weekend and again people will talk about Cheltenham but the Hatton’s Grace is a race people want to win and it looks like all the top horses are staying in. It was the same with the race last week. Charles Byrnes wanted to win that with Solwhit and while the Champion Hurdle is the long term aim, there are a lot of big prizes along the way.
The website went live yesterday and you can get all the info and photographs on www.jessicaharringtonracing.com. I’m hoping it will be useful for our owners and we’re looking at giving them a separate password so that they can log in and watch videos of their horses working out.
For the general public, there will be plenty of updates and we will try to give an insight into what goes on in a racing yard. We’ll also have a section letting people know what horses we have on offer for sale, lease or lease-to-buy. And there’ll be a bit of fun in there as well.
