After spending two days at Beverly races, a trip to Cartmel today was pushed aside in favour of the shorter journey to Newcastle to saddle the gorgeous "Sugar Beach" who started favourite having run a cracker in second on debut. The all weather was not however, to her liking and this daughter of one of my favourite stallions "Canford Cliffs" finished fifth. Over at Cartmel the enigmatic "Heaven Scent" ran another cracking race in the juvenile hurdle race when finishing third for ICM racing, who will have been thrilled with another good performance. She won on her hurdling debut but todays sharper track did not help her, although she loved Catmel's twists and turns with it's fair ground, camp site and carnival atmosphere, another half a furlong or more would have suited her style of running and seen her finishing closer. "Silver Streak" ran well to finish fourth in the same race, it was his hurdles debut and he acquitted himself very well.
Yesterday's Beverly runners did well- "Harbour Lightening" who has grown immeasurably and is a model of consistency with five out of her six runs being in the first four. The rain softened ground however did little to help her but nevertheless she did well to finish second. "Ninetta" also finished runner up in her race but desperately needs to drop a few pounds in the handicap to allow her to be really competitive.
At home Janos is busy looking after the yearlings at the farm while they rest after a hectic and stressful time at the sales. Once we are happy they are well rested, Allen will start the process of breaking them all in. Janos is thrilled to get his job back after recently being laid off but the extra thirteen horses have ensured this smashing horseman and part of the team here at Sun Hill Racing, is back on board. The yearlings have all settled in really well and are a striking bunch with a lot of character as you can see from the short video I took last night when George and I called in to see them.
The Foxwedge colt is looking like a bit of a bargain- although I think they were all good value, his sire had two more winners at the weekend including a Group placed horse. This coming weeks newspaper articles I write for the "Northern Echo" and "Darlington and Stockton Times" features a piece on last weeks yearling sales and can be read here....
With open mornings for ICM Racing and Grange Park Racing coming up on September 10th and 11th respectively, the recently bought yearlings are bound to be centre of attraction over at the farm. Please see Open day page for more information on the forthcoming open mornings.