Author: victoria

This week we travelled to the Scottish Flat track of Hamilton with our first ever runner and disappointed we were not…. MITCD ran her little heart out to win by a nice margin under a confident ride by James Sullivan.

The mare had been running nicely in the void race at Cartmel a week or so prior and we were keen to get her back on the track quickly to catch her whilst on top form. Mitcd or Bridget as she is known, is owned by our Sponsors Julie and Barry Lloyd and has been such a great fun horse since she arrived with us, firstly at Southdean and now at Jerusalem.

Classical Milano ran a very creditable race to be second at Kelso on the cram packed ladies’ day fixture on May 27^th. It was great to have him almost get his head in front, especially when the crowds were so big and many familiar faces around us. All Classical Milano’s owners seemed to have a great day, which was helped by a Maurice Barnes 100-1 shot coming in, in the first race!!!

Back at Jerusalem we are busy as usual. We have begun preparations for an eight horse, Horse Walker which will be delivered in the next couple of weeks. This should help us hugely with cooling the horses off and keeping them going over the weekends when we have less available bodies to ride.

We are also pressing on with more improvements, the yard is being repaired and fresh concrete being laid over the next few weeks, all in time for our first Jerusalem Farm open Day which we plan to host in early September, invites will be sent shortly!!

Its amazing how much some of the younger horses are growing and the change is the shape of many of them is unbelievable, with Samba Time, Victoria’s little mare catching the eye being the biggest transformation. She is still weak however she has filled out hugely and we plan to give her as much time as she needs to progress to her potential. We have been schooling her over hurdles which she seems to handle very well.

Our Brian Boru gelding – Brian, is now back on his holidays and looking an absolute picture. He had an accident over 12 months ago and managed to damage his withers, he seems to have recovered from that incident well and handled his 8 weeks walking and trotting well. Its a waiting game to see how he progresses.

The two newbies we got from Doncaster Sales have settled in well and are now both on their holidays and loving the views across the fells, the peaceful environment will be a huge change for them coming from much bigger yards.

Yesterday we took the trip up to Perth with Onderun and Our Morris and we came home with our first WINNER of the new Season!!

Onderun was pulled up very quickly, after not enjoying the firmer ground and struggling to get a good rhythm into his fences. We were in two minds whether to run him (Forrest we call him) but due to the fact the track walked with a fair but of cut and he seemed in fine fettle, we ran…

Very pleased that Jonathon read the horse and pulled him up when the conditions didn’t suit, we will have a fun horse for our Racing Club next year. Please contact Victoria if anyone is interested in joining, there is a great bunch of members and lots of fun to be had at the Races!! He has cam home buzzing and eaten up his feed this morning.

OUR MORRIS showed everyone what he can do to win the Alan Normile Handicap Hurdle over just under 3 miles.

He has had an unlucky couple of seasons, struggling to get the good going which is key to him, taking longer to become fluent at hurdling than we would like and a few niggly issues with colic and viruses. He has now left all those niggles behind him and rewarded his very patient and loyal owner Raymond Fisher with the win he deserves. Raymond has had horses with us for many years and been seen in the winner’s enclosure many, many times!!

Morris will keep going through the summer as long as the going remains safe and hope to pick up a few more prizes!!

We are extremely gutted to report that we lost Newtown Belle at Sedgefield earlier in the week. She was making her hurdling debut and broke her knee whilst running a sound race. She had set off very keen but was jumping well and learning loads. She was a long prospect of a mare which I am sure had her best years to come, our thoughts are with her owners the Newtown Racing Club.

Classical Milano pleased us all with a good run at Kelso last week to be fourth in his second ever chase. This is a gelding who needs the good going and we hope to keep going through the summer.

Classical Milano, Our Morris, Outback Blue, Mitcd, Lawtop Legend, Samba Time are the leading names of our Summer Squad which we hope to continue to fire. We also have a few young ones progressing well and some returning from injuries… watch this space!!!

Finally – our luck has turned and ONDERUN comes home in front at Carlisle – more information to follow….

Please get in touch with Victoria if you would be interested in joining our racing club – to own some of this winning chaser!!!

The weather has turned colder the last few days with ground frosts in the mornings. The new gallop Harrow has been put to good use to keep the horses working.

This week we ran Newtown Belle and Classical Milano both of which were poor performers.

The mare Newtown Belle is an And Beyond and through breeding was never going to make a Bumper horse, although you always hope you have an exception to the rule!!

She gallops well and is a fine specimen of a mare to the eye. History shows that she will need time to mature and come into her own in staying hurdles in the future. We will now begin teaching her the hurdling game. She settled very well in the race, which may have been party to the fitting of the hood, which was a huge improvement from the boil over, first time out at Hexham.

Classical Milano made his chase debut, on soft, tacky Going, which we knew would not suit but didn’t quite realise how much he would hate it.

He left the paddock and instantly struggled to go on the surface and was seen to be almost paddling. He jumped very well and pulled up along the back side the final time. He has now qualified himself to run in handicap chases, so the run was not a complete loss. We will now wait with him and will not be tempted to run him unless the ground is good. He performed every time he ran last season, and this was on a good surface.

Grays Choice has left us to join Henry Oliver and we wish him the best of luck. We will always have a soft spot for the big lad, we were there to help pick him out as a three-year -old, Jonathon broke him in and Debbi was deposited by him over a fence or two by him!! He ran some great races for us in his Bumpers, winning one for us at Ayr and I hope he overcomes his problems and regains that level of form once again.

Our horses are all very well, but all seem to have their individual niggles which we are working tirelessly to get to the bottom of.

We all need to keep reminding ourselves that ‘Form is Temporary, but Class, Skills and Experience are Permanent. Horses and people don’t lose their ability, they just have problems preventing them from regaining that level, and our time is spent solving those problems… It takes time to regain form levels once again. We have all seen this time and time again is our industry with trainers seeing a poor run, such as Donald McCain a few seasons ago and then this season he is back with an almighty bang, doing very little wrong and having winners left, right and centre. We will get back to into the Winners Enclosure and we will remember all the lessons we have learnt to get there.

Today we have two runners heading to Sedgefield. Forty Crown goes in a handicap hurdle and Lawtop Legend goers for his second Bumper start.

Forty Crown is feeling well in himself and at the ripe old age of 11 seems to be loving life. Lawtop Legend is a naughty son of Milan who disappointed in his bumper debut last season. He was very green and weak and should come on for the summer at grass.

Tomorrow we had Royal Salute in at Carlisle but have decided to pull him out as we feel we may target him at a hurdle race and build on his confidence after he was brought down in a chase before he joined us. His confidence is growing gradually and we would hate to knock him back.

Saturday we have Allez Cool and Sybil Grey entered for Kelso.

Allez Cool ran a stormer on awful going at Hexham a couple of weeks ago. He jumped like a buck and got into a battle for the front early on, he finish absolutely drunk and gave us a scary moment or two after the race. We assumed he would need ample time to recover from this, however when Debbi rode him four days later, he was far from exhausted and has been prancing about ever since!! Allez goes for another chase.

Sybil Grey goes in the conditional jockeys distance hurdle. Twizzle has been laden with problems this summer and we hope to see her in that winner enclosure soon!!

Mitcd ran on the flat at Newcastle last week finishing a close 5th, she ran well and got caught for toe in a quick finish. She will now revert between both hurdles and the flat as she seems a very versatile mare.

Onderun has still some shares up for grabs, Club places have filled up fast and we can’t wait to have some great days racing this season. We hope to head to Ayr with him next weekend. Get in touch with Victoria for more details on becoming involved.

Great Photos below from Lindsay Nichol

It’s all go at Jerusalem now the new Gallop is in full use and the horses are all coming to.

We have Our Morris and Sybil Grey entered for Hexham this week, for their Twilight Fixture on Thursday. Both are targeted at the same race, a 3mile hurdle.

Sybil Grey has had a few problems this summer and we hope we have got to the bottom of them. She has been very unlucky and we would love to see her run a big race for her owner and breeder Lizzie Annett.

Our Morris is back in after a short break at grass, he enjoyed the sunshine out in the field whilst the going was a little too firm, however should enjoy the sound safer surface we should have this week.

We also have a flat runner entered for Carlisle next week – Page of Wands for Carolynn Todd. ‘Millie’ has been with us all summer and has been quite the character; we hope to channel that feisty temper into the Carlisle hill.

Meanwhile we have been busy schooling the autumn and winter jumpers and all appear to be going well, we will report back with the progress soon!

Next weekend we have an Owners Day for the Martin Gray Racing Syndicate, we look forward to welcoming the entire club to the new yard and look forward to them seeing Gray’s Choice looking very well!!