Time to go shopping!

The autumn is a time of transition in the yard and over the next week there will be plenty of faces coming and going. We have already had a bit of a clear out with some horses which weren't up to scratch moving on to other stables whilst top-rated Luhaif was sold privately to race in Saudi Arabia. He left on Saturday morning and was set to stay the night in Dover before crossing to Brussels and boarding a plane to his new home. I wouldn't mind joining him for some sun!

This week sees the annual jumble sale at Tattersalls with the horses in training sale. There are nearly 1500 horses set to go through the ring, many of whom you would have probably backed over the course of the year. The trick is to cipher through them all and find the ones which don't have any problems and are worth buying. Thanks to some useful contacts I have in other yards, finding out about horses is a lot easier than it could be. I have orders to buy five in total so hopefully I can come home happy by Thursday evening!
One of these will be up for syndication so keep your eyes peeled for more information.

As well as scouting for new talent, we also have a couple of runners this week.
On Thursday, Meddling heads to Lingfield for her first run since a short break. She won at the track in the spring and enjoys front-running around there. She is in really good shape and put in a great gallop on Saturday. She is pretty fit for the comeback so I hope she can go well.
The other runner comes on Friday as Handheld heads down the road to Newmarket. I have a feeling he is too high in the weights at present but the only way to get him down again is to keep running him. He is very game and will be thereabouts but the handicapper stops him winning at the minute.

Handheld (Ross) & Meddling (Shelley)

 

The Ducking Stool has taken her season's racing remarkably well and still seems as enthusiastic as ever. She doesn't run as well on the all-weather so time on the turf is running out but she will have one more run at Nottingham the week after next. The track should suit her and it'd be amazing to squeeze another success out of her.

Authorized filly (Danny) & The Ducking Stool (Ryan)

The one scheduled runner for last week didn't happen as the ground went too soft for Automotive at Doncaster. It's a funny time of year with the soft ground and not too many all-weather fixtures. It won't be long though before we're busy again with plenty of runners.