Author: admin

Sorry for the lack of news over the past few months, we have had some technical issues in the Office and been unable to post…. but we are now back in action!!

Meanwhile a lot has been going on at Jerusalem with the new gallop bedding in well and new Easy Fix Hurdles and Chase Fences arriving. Both of these new facilities have been a huge advantage over the last few months as the weather has been very challenging.

The easy fix double sided hurdles allow us to jump horses at relatively high speeds along the bottom side of the gallop. We have found this a huge asset, especially with the numbers of green youngsters we have in training at the moment.

So…. What have you missed?

• Sunny Destination made a great start over Hurdles finishing a close 4^th at Ayr
• Casual Cavalier has shown improvement after his Wind Operation and has travelled strongly throughout his races, finishing 3^rd at Wetherby and then 2^nd at Ayr.
• Mitcd has been knocking on the door too, finished third at Sedgefield and 2^nd at Musselburgh.
• Outback Blue joined us in November after Carolynn Todd and George claimed the gelding from Redcar races. He has since learned to hurdle well and made a good start to his jumping career.
• Royal Salute has now had two runs for us. He made a very promising debut, travelling keenly and jumping well but unfortunately fell at the last hurdle with his head in front at Ayr.
• He returned home sound and then went again, in another hurdle race, only to disappoint. Jonathon reported the horse was never travelling. We will strike a line through this and hope for better as we were unable to find anything physically wrong with him. We will revert back to head gear on his next start.
• The decision was made to retire Spanish Fleet after three very lack lustre efforts. He is now joining Annabelle to go show jumping as he simply doesn’t want to race any longer.
• Lawtop Legend has been learning the ropes of the hurdling game and now seems to settle better in his races. He has been unsuited by the softer surface and now he has been given his handicap mark of 89, he should be much more competitive in his grade of race, with going to suit.
• Grays Choice made his Chasing debut and unfortunately after a reasonably sound round of jumping burst blood vessels. He has been treated for this at home and will make his reappearance soon.

In summary, we have had some good runs, some very unlucky ones and a few learning curves!! All the horses are thriving at home and loving the new gallop, we hope to have winners back on the board soon.

Ellie Farrell joined the team at the end of November and has settled in to our routine well, I am sure you will meet her on the yard or at the races soon.

We have Casual Cavalier entered for Newcastle on Tuesday with Brian Hughes on board; let’s hope he can go one place better this time!!

Samba Time, Newtown Belle, Innis Shannon, Dippin and Diving, Our Morris and New Granada are all in full training and will be back on the course early Spring.

We have been searching for a new recruit to join the Racing Club for some time after a few lack lustre performances from Silver Trix. We are delighted to have bought Onderun from the recent sales at Doncaster.

This staying chaser is a son of Fleminsfirth and is a strapping big horse. He has joined us from Emma Levelle’s yard, where he was running in decent Southern Handicaps. We plan to give him the summer at grass and bring him in for a winter jumps campaign.

Please contact Victoria for details on how to get involved, it’s a very affordable and fun way to enjoy horse racing.

At the same sales Victoria’s Bloodstock agent (Jonathon!!) bought her a horse called Royal Salute, he is a beauty to look at and has already won three races! He is also a son of Flemensfirth and we are very excited about him!

We now have three Flemensfirth staying chasers in the yard – Allez Cool, Royal Salute and Onderun and not one of them look alike!

We head over to Ireland this week to look at 3 year olds at the sales and hope to pick up some stars of the future.

We have begun building the all-weather gallop, as usual; things take much longer than thought and involve a lot of hard work. The weather was a hindrance at the beginning with a huge amount of rain fall causing muddy conditions.

We have spent the months since arriving at Jerusalem pondering over the best location for the gallop and finally concluded with the spot chosen in front of the house and towards the skyline. The gradual uphill climb and top level seems ideal and once the tree is chopped down from in front of Victoria’s office window it will be even better!

As you can imagine, we have also spent hours and hours considering the best surface available on the market which was is also affordable to us. We have decided on a carpet fibre surface. This has been seen to great effect on the gallops of Martin Keighley and comes highly recommended by many of the lads in the weighing room.

Huge thanks to Roger Atkinson who has been helping us with the digger work on the gallop, he has made the process much slicker.

We now have the gallop dug out and the stone bottom fitted, we also have created a gallop round at the bottom of the gallop and this too has all the ground works in place. We now have to finalise the surface and fit this along with the membrane.

We plan to bring the first lot of horses back into training on 1^st July and all stations are go to get more stables up and finished ahead of the remanding horses coming back in. Current numbers are over 20 for the season ahead.

We will be looking for part time staff, riding out and occasional afternoon yard work. You must be hard working, easy going and able to work both alone as well as part of a team. Please contact Victoria if you are interested.