Training record breakers!

Even though the horses haven't been breaking many records on the track recently, we can now boast a Guinness World Record holder in the yard after Ross set a new record for the fastest marathon dressed as a jockey with a time of 3hrs 8mins at the London Marathon yesterday. We were watching the TV coverage all day in the hope of getting a glimpse to him but we only saw some other bloke dressed as a jockey so he must have had some competition on the day!
Special mention must go to owner Len Cousens who completed his 34th London Marathon and finished in a time of 4hrs 48mins. Just the thought of doing it makes my joints ache!

Record man Ross

The big meeting for us on the horizon comes next week when we'll have a large party heading to Yarmouth on Monday and Tuesday for their opening bank holiday meeting. We've always been lucky at the track and the horses love it there so we enjoy going. Plans haven't been finalised yet and final details will be in next week's blog.

As a result, we just have a couple of runners in the coming seven days, starting with No Such Number at Southwell on Tuesday. He has been running well at the track this winter and he is due a win after some consistent efforts. It's an apprentice race for jockeys who haven't ridden more than 10 winners but we've got a pretty experienced rider in David Parkes who has ridden a few winners recently and comes highly recommended from trainer Alan Bailey.

It's great that the all-weather calendar has a feature raceday now and this Friday sees the inaugural All-Weather Championships Day at Lingfield. We had plans for some of the horses to race in the valuable events but things don't always go as you want but we'll still be represented on the day. Veeraya is likely to be outclassed but his owner really wanted a runner on the day so he is heading there. We tried him in blinkers to wake him up a bit and he went better than usual so we'll be delighted if he can get in the prize money.

Veeraya (Adam) & The Ducking Stool (Reno)

 

Candesta and Shelia's Heart are two similarly imposing geldings and both will be running at the end of the month. Candesta didn't like the soft ground last time and has worked well on firmer going recently so we're hopeful he can put up a better show. Sheila will be due a break soon but is in good form and is very honest too so a win won't be far away.

Shelia's Heart (Shelley) & Candesta (Danny)

 

Silver Alliance loved Yarmouth last season and, after a good comeback run last time, he'll be part of the team heading there next week. Avidly hasn't had much luck in her last two runs but she is fine at home and will be running again in a couple of weeks.

Silver Alliance (Ross) & Avidly (Graham)

 

Bushy Glade was very weak as a two year old last season but came out of her winter break a lot stronger. She has taken a while to come to hand but is flying now and will be ready to run at Warwick towards the end of the month. She'll be having her third run so will likely improve for the experience but it'll be interesting to see what she's got.

Bushy Glade (Ryan)