The horses seem to be continuing to come out of the virus and the relief is almost palpable. Yesterday “Canford’s Joy” added to Chant and Rosina’s recent successes to become our first two year old winner this season, a statistic that is way below what we expect of ourselves but unavoidable given the circumstances. Younger horses, have less immunity than older horse’s do to viruses and other common illnesses and diseases, just as grown-ups have a better, stronger and more mature immune system than young children do.
It is the down side to buying mostly yearlings and then having yard full of youngsters who can’t run when they have been so ‘challenged’ by a virus or similar, of course older horses too are affected but they tend to have enough immunity not to allow it to have quite the same impact.
Of course we are not complaining because we have been lucky enough to produce some smart juveniles and sell them for vastly more than they cost and our yard and facilities are the result of those soirees but, we really do need to attain a better balance of horses across different age groups.
Canford’s Joy’s win was made even better by the fact that we think there is more to come from this well-bred son of Canford Cliffs, he really does have a smart pedigree and was still a bit “green”. He is owned by “John and Jacki Dwyer”, new owners to the yard who fell in love with him in the Spring of the year, he was one of the last horses to find an owner and, as is often the case these ‘ left overs’ do often go on to become very decent horses.
Uncle Charlie very nearly made it a double for us and had the pace of the race been faster its fairly safe to say he would have won but his close up third was equally welcomed as he also confirmed his wellbeing.