End of an era in the Feilden family

It was a sad day on Sunday when I received the news that my father, Peter, had passed away in his nursing home at the age of 77. He had been ill with dementia for some time so it's probably a release for him from the suffering, he's had a huge influence on where I am today as I took over the trainers licence when he retired and he was always on hand to help with feeding and other jobs as he loved racing and never wanted to slow down from his busy life in racing. We did manage to keep him occupied though with the tours we do around Newmarket, here he is below left, showing a tour round the British Racing School, before the illness took full grip. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for all the kind messages and cards I have received over the past few days, we have been touched by the support and it's reminded us of how much dad was respected and loved by the community.

However a trainers life never subsides as the horses still need training, we had a few runners at the beginning of the week. On Monday Kampai ran at Southwell, we thought she could be in the frame again after her brilliant comeback 2nd but she missed the break and it is so hard to get into a race at Southwell when that happens. The same day Acer Diamonds ran, but it was more of a non-event as he stumbled coming out of the gates and was hacked round by his jockey who reported that the horse was not sound after the start. So all hopes were pinned on Exopuntia the next day at Yarmouth and she just missed out on the top spot by finishing 3rd only beaten a neck by the winner, it's great to see her come back to form after a few poor runs, a win is surely just around the corner for her.

With the sudden change in fortunes in terms of the weather the horses have been enjoying a bit of sun on their backs. Here's a few pictures from the field from today...



Kampai checks out the camera 




Sancho Panza makes two new friends in the form of magpies!




Faraway Land and Entrance (right) having a relaxing pick of grass




Spirit of Sharjah managed to sneak a headcollar into his field and had hours of fun playing with it, he even kept tripping himself up!




Who knew a headcollar could provide so much fun?!



Khajaaly's near fore leg has healed well and you can just see a few white hairs above the knee where he was operated on




Silver Alliance checks out the camera too!

Quite a few runners next week, kicking off tomorrow at Yarmouth with Believe In Me. She ran a great race there last time and it is not a too strong a race this time either, she has her own ideas about things so hopefully she can keep concentrating. Then on Wednesday is Emma's Gift at Goodwood, she hasn't run in a while but has been flying at home and should be in with a shout if retaining her old ability. On Thursday we have Omega Omega at Nottingham, it is an ideal race but they've had alot of entries, she will need all the trip on handicap debut. Then The Ducking Stool and Entrance are in the same race at Newbury on Sunday, they're both in the form of their loves so hopefully we can get a nice winner or two this week!