Bright and cold today, a drying phase and it is off to Kelso tomorrow for Morebattle Hurdle day.  The ground should be good to soft and we have three declared runners on an ultra competitive card starting with Gaillimh a Stor in the 14.20; he has been running very well over hurdles this season finishing a close 2nd on his last two starts at Ayr over 3 miles.  He didn’t take to fences last time and will hopefully be much more at home back over the smaller obstacles and should run a big race if not inconvenienced by the drop back in trip – 10 run and Bruce rides.

Gaillimh A Stor

Ginger Mail runs in the feature race at 15.30 and the huge prize has again attracted a strong maximum field of 18 runners; he was 2nd in the race last season and races off 2lb higher this time round having won on his penultimate start, I’m hoping you can put a line through his last run as he made a bad mistake and propped on  landing at a crucial stage in the race so hopefully he will outrun his odds – Bruce rides.

Ginger Mail

Finally we run Platin Moon in the juvenile hurdle at 16.04, he’s a lovely big horse who will improve for time and could run a decent race tomorrow if he learns to settle as he has been too free on his hurdle starts to date – 6 run and Bruce rides.

Platin Moon

The last race of the day is the Cyril Alexander Memorial Novices Chase, a race we started in 1993.  Bet365 have taken over the sponsorship and have kindly kept his name in the race, sadly no runner this year for us but it is always a special race for the family.

15yo Clan Legend, our home bred 2017 winner of the “Cyril Alexander” watching over the gallops with me this morning.

Our Ayr runners both ran with great credit, Orkney Blue finishing 2nd and Eloi du Puy 3rd, we were delighted with them both but sadly the yard suffered a crushing blow on Tuesday morning when Cream of the West collapsed and died on the gallops during a routine canter first lot.  Devastating for everyone but none more so than his patient Owners Tom and Silke Cochrane, and Catherine who was riding him at the time and looked after him with so much care and attention every day.

Cream of the West on his way to winning last season

His loss has left a sombre feeling over the yard this week though the news this morning that Stainsby Girl gave birth to a colt foal by Logician last night certainly cheered us up, not bad just 54 weeks after winning a Grade 2 Hurdle at Haydock – clever girl!

Proud Mum – born less than 24 hours ago

The reaction on the yard to Cream of the West brought home just how much these horses mean to all of us, at the end of the day we live for them and whilst it will always be a part of our job it never becomes any easier.  Mark and I were away at the Employee Awards so Catherine, Kim and the team had to deal with an awful situation.  The mercy was that Catherine wasn’t seriously injured as can easily happen in these situations but I was also really touched by the way the whole team rallied round and supported each other.  It feels timely therefore that the BHA is relaunching its Horse PWR campaign nationally to get the message across that equine welfare in UK horseracing is as good as we can make it – anyone who would like to see that first hand is welcome to visit Kinneston and we will show you.  The Horse PWR website is excellent and can be seen here.

Cream of the West with Catherine