What a month!

Hi Everyone,

​JACK HYDE was our first runner of October in the Grade 2 Persian War Novices' Hurdle at Chepstow. We were really looking forward to it, but I felt the race was over as soon as he left the parade ring. The preliminaries really got to him, and he was very keen on the way to the start. You simply cannot do that in a race I’ve been lucky enough to win twice as a jockey. Like always with syndicates, you have to deal with the ups and the downs. We had drinks in the owners' and trainers' bar afterwards, shared lots of laughs, and headed home safe and sound.

We had a lovely morning on the gallops at Dan Skelton's with breakfast, where we introduced the members to our very exciting new horse, INK BLACK HEART, and saw BELLE LE GRAND, who looked fantastic after her little break. Everyone enjoyed the morning, and we got to have a grand tour of the different yards, gallops, and facilities, which are all very impressive.

Later in the month, we headed to Worcester for SAINT JEANNAIS. I was nervous about this horse, as he’d been doing things a bit differently to most horses I’ve sat on in recent years. I’ve thought this before, but this time, my gut instinct was right - we might have found something a bit special. Toby McCain-Mitchell gave him a beautiful ride, and from what I can see, he’s a young jockey going from strength to strength in the saddle. We had a lovely day at Worcester, and I took the Twiston-Davies team for drinks at the Hollow Bottom in the evening, which we all enjoyed. We plan to run SAINT JEANNAIS in the bumper at the Cheltenham November meeting, but, as with all horses, this is the plan for now.

​We then headed straight to Cheltenham for the October meeting, where we had our second-ever runner at Cheltenham with LELOOPA. Once again, she did what LELOOPA does and exceeded all our expectations, romping up the hill to win the 2m Conditional Jockeys Handicap Hurdle under the very talented Tom Broughton.

Quickly onto the next race, we ran JACK HYDE in the Grade 2 Novices’ Hurdle. Again, I felt like he did plenty wrong but still ran an unbelievable race, finishing 5th, beaten under 3 lengths. It was a week I won’t forget, having our first Cheltenham winner with the syndicate.

We also had a runner at Ffos Las in the bumper this week with A KING OF MAGIC, trained by Paul Nicholls and ridden by Freddie Keighley, a young jockey who impressed me with his professionalism. Magic was a warm favourite, and even though he didn’t win, he ran a race full of promise. Paul assures us he’ll improve massively for the race, and we’re really excited about his future.

This week, we purchased our 10th syndicate horse, KING’S SCHOLAR, from Ed Walker. He was put to me by Megan Nicholls, and I drove to Lambourn to see him and loved him. He has very good flat form, and I think he’ll make a cracking hurdler, with the plan to run him on the flat too. He will be trained by Olly Murphy. There are a few shares available currently.

Finally, in jockey news, we’ve appointed Liam Harrison to back up the stable jockeys in the yards our horses are in. Liam is a lovely rider, always puts the horse first, and I’m looking forward to sharing the journey with him.

Roll on November!
​
Paddy and the team