News

It's a blue sky morning with not a cloud in the sky and we have all to be very careful over the next few days as this heat wave moves up from Europe. It's cooler for the horses inside the stables and the ones we have left have already been out in the coolest part of the day. I must commend my staff who are all doing a most sterling job and the atmosphere in the yard is tremendous.
 

We have three runners today, all at Chelmsford this evening where I am sure it will be boiling. The racecourses are taking all precautions considering the weather. There will be plenty of iced water for both people and horses. Our first runner is Prosecutor in the 5.50, the six furlong novice race. She has had a couple of runs and will be handicapped after today's outing. I am sure she will be competitive over further later on in the season. Our next two runners are both in the same race at 8.50, the mile and six handicap. Velvet Vision is up in trip and is on a good handicap mark. Ness of Brodgar has run two very sound races on this track and although she pulled up slightly lame last time she has not taken a lame step since.They both must have sound chances tonight and both of them are not drawn too badly. It would be great to go out with a winner but fairy tales don't often come true.

Another point I should like to make about the future of racing, and it's a point I have made before and will make again, is that trainers should be allowed to run their business in tandem as they do in Australia. It would certainly encourage more young people to get involved if their name was on the licence. We have brought this matter up before at meetings and to me it is a no brainer that it should happen as quickly as possible.

It's very sad to see Sea of Class had to be put down after her colic surgery and along with Lady Kaya we have lost two high class fillies in a short time. Not only are they a loss to the racetrack,  what brood mares they would have made. It's amazing how things always seem to happen to the good ones. A wise old farmer once told me, "Where there's livestock, there's dead stock." How right he was but it is never easy to get over the setbacks especially when they were as good as these two fillies.

 

There are plenty of high wispy clouds this morning but no sign of any rain. I don’t think the southeast is going to get much other than the odd thunder storm later in the week. We are starting to wind down now with the horses, but the three that are running tomorrow have been out and had a pipe opener, and the others are doing normal exercise until we find where they are all going.

It was good fun yesterday on the Nick Luck show although it wasn’t Nick who was interviewing me it was Tom. I think I got the main points across as well as I could. I have never been one for beating around the bush and for me I was quite restrained on several points. We have got a most brilliant product with the best horses and personnel in the world, but nearly the worst finances of any racing nation. We are so far behind because of the terrible deal we have with the betting industry. I only hope someone will have the grit to sort it out in time. There are several things that I would like to see happen and I will be pointing them out as the week goes on.

I may have mentioned it before but one of my first points is that all owners should pay the basic training fees through Weatherbys. We have tried to bring this in several times but, every time it rears its head, the big trainers don’t like it. I have recently had several smaller trainers talk to me about this matter as they are just not getting paid and, they themselves will be going out of business in the near future. The BHA and the owners association don’t ever see this side of it or, if they do, don’t understand and have no power to make paying on time by owners compulsory. I would love to see a rule brought in that said every basic training fee had to be paid through Weatherbys or a BHA racing account.