Valliant Valence.

Valence Racing had a good day at Plumpton today with both their horses finishing in the frame.  First Itoldyou finished third in a 3 mile 2 furlong chase, then Clonusker showed his first sign of real form by finishing second in a 2 mile handicap hurdle.

Itoldyou being unsaddled after finishing 3rd.

 

Ridden by Andrew Thornton, Itoldyou was held up at the rear for the first couple of circuits and then was moved up to challenge the front runners down the final hill.  A mistake at the 4th last didn't help his cause but he managed to stay on up the hill for third.
In the final race of the day Clonusker, ridden by Gerard Tumelty, made all the running and had broken most of his rivals by the time they entered the home straight.  One horse loomed alongside him here and he had to settle for second, but a very pleasing result nevertheless.

Champagne Breakfast

 

It was a champagne breakfast this morning to celebrate Itoldyou's Plumpton victory.  Accompanying the champers were smoked salmon, baked cheese nibbles, pate, poppy seed crackers with special cheese delicacies and chocolate and caramel shortcakes!  Even so the regulars still managed to consume nearly fifty large sausages between them!

Then it was time to watch Linda supervise a session on the track for Itoldyou and others.

 

 

 

 

Itoldyou triumphs.

Itoldyou won his first race under rules today in a 3 mile 2 furlong handicap chase at Plumpton. 

Ridden by Andrew Thornton, he was allowed to travel at the rear of the 4 horse field for the first two circuits so that he didn't know that he was having a race.  He took closer order going into the railway bend for the final time, then took his chance when a gap opened up on the inside rail entering the home straight.  He hit the front two fences from home and never looked in trouble from there on.  A good jump at the last sealed it for him and all the backers who had made him the 7/4 favourite for the race.

 

So who reads the blog?

 

 

So while we are all avidly reading "The Racing Post" Linda has discovered that they are reciprocating by reading this blog page.  Linda was surprised when they rang her for more information about one of the horses, to expand on what they had read here.  Hopefully we will be able to provide further positive stories for their pages in future. 

She's Humble retires, while Fleeting Indian gets going.

Today, over breakfast, the owners of She's Humble (pictured above) agreed that it was time to retire her and let her go to the paddocks to produce future stars.  She has been a great servant to the yard winning 5 times and being in the frame in over a third of her 68 races.  She earned over £26 000 in prize money. 
Later at Lingfield, Fleeting Indian made the frame for the first time when coming third in a 6 furlong maiden ridden by Daniel Cremin. He travelled behind the leaders and was 4th entering the home straight, where he did enough to gain one place in the final furlong.  He now has just over £300 in prize money.

Public washed away.

It was Public Open Day at the stables today.  Linda and the team worked hard to get everything ready to make it an interesting experience for the visitors.  Then just as the first people began to arrive and look at the horses the heavens opened and heavy rain began to fall.  Tables with racing artefacts on had to be hastily moved to the tack room and it was sodden riders who worked the horses on the track.  Not surprisingly numbers were down this year, but those who braved the elements felt it was a worthwhile visit.

Snowbound!

No, the storm on Monday wasn't that bad.  Linda has purchased Celestial Ray, previously with Sir Mark Prescott, at the sales for her owners K. Johnson & K. Jessup.  The hope is that he will run on the ice at St. Moritz in the spring.  He would follow in the footsteps of Cupid's Glory who finished 2nd in the big race there, in 2008, for the same combination of owners and trainer.