Busy behind the scenes

It may be a quiet time on the track with only a few runners recently but there has been plenty going on behind the scenes as some new faces come into the yard.
We already have six yearlings ready to be sent away for pre-training and it's great to have so many youngsters - definitely the most I have had in a few years. They are, after all, the future horses to be trained so hopefully they can all be winners when hitting the track from next April onwards.
It will be extra special this year as two of them have been home bred, I trained the mothers and it is exciting to see if the offspring have any similar characteristics and if they can run as fast as their talented mums!
Continuing the theme, we already have a champion for 2016 as Emma's Gift's colt foal continues to grow fast. It won't be long before he is weaned from his mum and joins the field full of big boys which should toughen him up a bit. He is bred to be decent, being by a Derby winner, so fingers crossed he will be worth the wait.

Growing fast: Emma's Gift's foal

 

With the horses in training sales coming up next month, I have orders to buy a few more so there will be plenty of other new faces coming in as well. At least one will be up for syndication so watch this space if you are keen to be part of another success story!

There was some drama on Wednesday as Veeraya took a bad turn. He had gone out on routine exercise and came back fine only to take a couple of mouthfuls of his lunch and suddenly start feeling very uncomfortable. He was laying on the floor thrashing around - telltale signs of colic. Luckily we were all in the yard and noticed his distress straight away so we did what you're supposed to do and got him on his feet and led him around. The vet was called and he said it didn't look good so we took him to the hospital and they decided to operate on him. They found he had a twisted gut and swiftly corrected it before having him under observation for a few days.
This just goes to show that you really are better off being a horse than a human in Newmarket as within an hour of falling ill, Veeraya was on the operating table being made better. It would take that long just for the ambulance to arrive for us humans!
He is now back home and seems very happy sporting a big scar on his belly. He will need plenty of rest and recuperation before he can start training again but there should be no lasting effects.

Hospital time: Veeraya

We have just one entry this week with Handheld at Nottingham on Wednesday. This isn't for certain though as he has been a bit sore this week after having new shoes fitted. We know he usually does get sore after the farrier has been and that's why we get him done so far in advanced of the race (usually you do it the day before) but he has taken longer than usual to feel right so we will have to monitor how he is over the coming days before making a definite decision. If he is good, I hope he'll run well as it's a valuable race and he has great form at the track. Lots of rain would be a plus as he enjoys soft ground.