The five am wake up call that kicked off today in fine style was courtesty of the taxi bringing Janos back home from a night out (it must have been "some night out"?), and two, very vocal and rather large German shepherds ensured that I made an early start this morning. Which is just as well because there was much to do, more than half a dozen owners pages were updated - with more to follow over the next two weeks, several owners to chat to, the yard to check over, one lame horse, two conversations with the vet and a raft of "horse details" to write up in time for Good Friday's open day. The accountants were in today for their monthly Sunday visit, gathering information from the accounts which will, in less than twenty four hours be translated into management accounts enabling me to see last months 'overspend' in gory detail. Later on there was a quick trip to Darlington to purchase a new and very capable ipad, in order to make life easier on the video front, and an important meeting with an important member of staff late this afternoon- actually ALL my staff are important- very important.
It was a good day, any day which is productive 'has' to be a good day and tomorrow will be even more productive - I hope, with a lady from Richmond School Careers office coming late morning to discuss the myriad of opportunities horse racing has to offer young people which currently, they seem to know very little about. This is a shame because there are many fantastic job prospects available which I hope to highlight. All trainers need to take it upon themselves to contact, as I have done, the local schools and colleges to discuss these opportunities, otherwise how else can we get the message out there that we are here ? That there are jobs for you, and we are willing to train you if you are willing to put the effort in. I believe one or two trainers have already made themselves available in this way, which is great, but I hope plenty more do too because racing is a huge employer yet we have never been great at beating our own chests and telling the wider world what a great life we have and what wonderful, diverse job prospects we can offer. More on this tomorrow........