Delighted with my first ‘Blue Horse’
In the past few days I’ve come away with some nice additions to the mantelpiece and make no mistake about it, I’ve been delighted to get them. It’s always nice to be acknowledged and be rewarded for your hard work. What happens with the horses is the greatest reward but getting an award is very nice too.
The HRI awards were on at Leopardstown on Monday and I was delighted to get my first Blue Horse. They are a prized commodity in racing circles. We were nominated a couple of times with Moscow Flyer but he never won it, so it was fantastic to finally get my hands on one this time for Outstanding Achievement.
The flat season was one to remember for me alright, and Pathfork giving me my first Group 1 will never be forgotten. The competition was stiff though and the category produced the first ever joint winners of the scheme, with Katie Walsh’s two Cheltenham festival winners deservedly recognised.
Pathfork was nominated for Horse of the Year, which was won by Big Zeb. I thought Rite of Passage might get it for winning the Ascot Gold Cup but apart from that, I think that all the right people were picked.
Yesterday, I was in Dublin again for the Irish Sportswomen’s Awards and it was a tremendous honour to be given a Lifetime Achievement gong. I have much more to do in racing I hope but it’s great to get it all the same.
It was brilliant to get racing back under way in Cork last Sunday and Fairyhouse was a great card with some great racing. Unfortunately, we might well be in for some more time off with some very heavy frost and snow. We’ll just have to see what’s thrown at us.
We finally managed to get back on to the gallops on Tuesday. I think the lads were more excited then the horses having spent the previous 10 days in the indoor school. In the end, the loss of work and subsequent fall off in fitness showed in some of them.
Having said that, I was happy with how must of the horses ran. In Cork, The Bull Hayes was a little bit short of work on Sunday but I was delighted with Burn and Turn in the bumper on Monday. Maybe she was a bit free to start with so to finish third was good.
I’ve no idea why Summit Meeting ran as badly as he did in Fairyhouse on Wednesday. We couldn’t find anything wrong but these things do happen. Sometimes there are no explanations. He ran a stinking race a year ago in a novice hurdle in Navan so maybe he doesn’t like running at this time of year. Who knows? He will run in Leopardstown at the end of the month and we’ll see.
Roberto Goldback delighted me though. That was a good performance to be beaten only a length and a half by Tranquil Sea. He’ll wait until January and then will probably go for the Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham in March.
Bostons Angel doesn’t have the class to run at the top level over two and a half miles so we’ll step him up to three miles over Christmas. The two coming back from injury did very well and the most important thing was that Top of the Rock and Mosstown are both fine afterwards. Top of the Rock in particular ran a very good race and he needed it badly.
After a generally good week though, I had my leveller in Clonmel on Thursday. I was very particular about the preparation for the two horses I was bringing down there, Pontiac and Dundrum.
I gave them a school in the morning just to make sure their eye was in and what happens but they both fall. If you’d seen them jumping in the morning you’d have said they couldn’t fall. It was funny though. You have to laugh at these things and both horses were fine afterwards.
It’s not looking great for racing this weekend but I really hope Navan survives today as I would love Oscars Well to get a run. The dilemma is that you don’t know what will survive and what won’t. I have the likes of Ricardian entered in Navan, Punchestown and Gowran over the next few days as he’s another I’d like to get a run for.
