History Made! A Week I'll Never Forget!
Hello all,
Thank you for joining me for this week's blog.
What an incredibly emotional week it has been, and one that I will never forget.
There is only one place to start, and that is with Cottage Field Stables, Tom Lacey and Silverhill Freya.
As covered in last week's blog, Freya was declared to run on Monday. With Plumpton being quite a drive, I decided to book a hotel for Sunday evening to alleviate the risk of traffic delays or any other issues getting there on race day. We all know how notorious the M25 can be when it comes to "clear runs"!
The journey down wasn't too bad in all honesty. Although there was a diversion due to an accident on the M11, and the Dartford Crossing was as slow-moving as expected, I arrived at a pretty respectable time.
One of our members, Mike, made the same decision. Having travelled all the way down from Cheshire, he had a much longer drive than me. As it happened, he had booked the same hotel, so we arranged to meet for a drink and a catch-up. We chewed the fat, put the world to rights and had a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Many thanks to Mike for the company.
The hotel itself was nothing special, but for £40 what could I really expect? It was very conveniently located and looked quite nice from the outside. Although, after sending a photo to my wife, her response was, "Whose house are you staying at?!"
I was somewhat disappointed the following morning when I asked reception if I could just have a bacon roll and was informed it would cost £16 as it counted as a hot breakfast. I decided against that idea and headed to Plumpton much earlier than was actually necessary.
We were in the second race of the day, so things started at quite a pace. After meeting up with the other members at the course, except for Damian and Chelle who sadly broke down on the journey, the nerves really started to kick in.
We decided to have lunch early and, credit to Plumpton, the food in the Owners & Trainers Lounge was excellent. If I'm being overly picky, the vegetables were slightly overcooked for my liking, but that's about the only criticism I could find.
Unfortunately, Tom Lacey wasn't able to attend, but I managed to flag Stan Sheppard down in the parade ring without too much trouble. It was a surreal moment seeing our silks on an actual jockey for the very first time.
Freya looked absolutely stunning and Tom had done a fantastic job preparing her. She was slightly on her toes in the parade ring, but considering this was her first run under Rules against a much more experienced field, that was almost to be expected.
Stan talked us through the plan. We knew there were three horses from top yards that were very highly regarded, so the objective was to make sure Freya enjoyed herself and to see where we stood at the business end of the race.
Around that point, the nerves were almost impossible to hide.
Freya began nicely and quickly settled into a rhythm, tracking one of the favourites. The first few hurdles were negotiated well and she passed us for the first time looking very comfortable.
We then had our first nervous moment when she appeared not to be particularly keen on the sand track crossing the course. Looking back at it, it seemed her stride just clipped the edge of the track, resulting in a slight stumble.
She travelled exceptionally well throughout. Although the leader was not setting a particularly strong pace, Freya always looked comfortable.
As we approached the business end of the race, Bold Step, the eventual winner, appeared to hit a flat spot which forced Freya slightly backwards in the field. She was then a little outpaced coming down the hill the second time. The three market leaders began to pull clear and I have no doubt Freya could have gone with them had Bold Step not inconvenienced her just before the descent.
Turning into the home straight, she moved into fourth and looked to be travelling strongly. At the second-last hurdle she stumbled on landing, which ended any chance of mounting a challenge to the leaders. Stan did exactly the right thing from there and simply looked after her, allowing her to come home in a very comfortable fourth place.
I thought it was an excellent performance.
It's worth remembering she finished 29 lengths ahead of a point-to-point winner who had also been placed in several other point-to-points and had achieved an Racing Post Rating of 103 over fences.
Back in the parade ring, Stan gave us his feedback and was very pleased with the run. He provided both me and the syndicate members with an excellent breakdown of the performance, along with plenty of useful thoughts for the future.
By finishing in the first four, we were also invited into the placed connections room for a celebratory glass of prosecco, which was a really nice touch from Plumpton.
Tom called almost immediately afterwards and, like all of us, he was delighted.
Since her run, Freya has had a quiet week. She came out of the race in great order and is as fresh as a daisy.
For the time being we will likely drop back to two miles, which was actually the original plan. The weather dictated going further on this occasion, but the run absolutely served its purpose and answered plenty of questions. Looking back, I am very pleased we decided to go for it.
I also want to mention the messages I received following her run.
My phone absolutely exploded with messages from family, friends, acquaintances and even people I have never met. Thank you to every single person who got in touch. It genuinely meant the world to me.
While I tried my best to play it cool, with the exception of Carla who unfortunately got the full force of my adrenaline-fuelled excitement, I was an emotional wreck.
History has been made.
Emris Racing will forever be in the record books and, perhaps most importantly, we currently maintain a 100% prize-money-winning record!
Now, I am aware the above could easily have been a blog post on its own, but it wouldn't be the weekly update without talking about the other horses.
Just Passing Bye
Just Passing Bye continues to do very well and is now working over around two miles on Ravenswell Farm's round gallop.
We had a really positive catch-up with Fergal this week. Interestingly, his horse won the race we could have run Freya in instead, so I'm quite pleased we swerved that one!
He is very happy with Ellie and we continue to take our time building her up before taking the next step.
At present, there are no plans for a debut run. We want to make sure she is fully ready and, with three-year-olds and fillies in particular, it is important to let them tell you when they are ready rather than imposing your own timetable.
There is absolutely no pressure from me to get her onto the racecourse. She will be ready when she is ready, and her wellbeing, along with the wellbeing of all our horses, remains the number one priority.
Maisie
Maisie has now returned from her break.
She spent a few days in the school refreshing some of her previous work before being ridden towards the end of the week.
She is a powerful three-year-old with an exceptional pedigree, so we have high hopes for her future.
David and Katie will now begin building her fitness before introducing her to some jumping. The plan is then for her to join Nicky Henderson at Seven Barrows, where we hope she will make it to the racecourse towards the latter part of the season.
Charlock Stud
Over at Charlock Stud, they are unreasonably busy with sales preparation, covering plans and owners constantly bothering them... tongue firmly in cheek, of course!
The girls, Emma and Pam, are both thriving with their thick winter coats and enormous field. Paul is still enjoying the luxury of stable time mixed with plenty of turnout.
Everyone continues to grow, develop and most importantly remain happy.
The team at Charlock do an exceptional job. Although the yard is predominantly home to Flat horses, we are delighted to have some proper National Hunt horses flying the flag there.
Carla in particular deserves a mention. She has the patience of a saint, puts up with a remarkable amount of my ridiculous messaging and always accepts the inevitable apologies with good humour.
Foal Sale Preparations
The remainder of my week has been spent studying catalogues and horse pages as the foal sales season has completely crept up on me.
I've been preparing shortlists of horses that I am going to try very hard not to buy!
I always like putting together a shortlist just to keep my eye in, even when there are no firm plans to purchase.
That said, I'm fairly sure Jerry McGrath has noticed us making a conscious effort not to speak to him recently... and for exactly that reason!
There are some particularly interesting lots coming up.
Among them are a half-sister to Maisie by Poet's Word, an own-brother to Pam, a half-sister to Freya by Nirvana du Berlais and several horses from Paul's family.
The first of these sales takes place next week, so we'll see how much willpower we really have.
Until next time!
