And Still It Rains.

The rain has continued falling and Paul has resorted to sandbags to keep the overflowing drain water off the gallops so that the horses can work.

Even so, the track was very wet but the horses managed to slop through it.

Christmas Social.

Owners and staff battled their way through floods to enjoy the annual Christmas social evening at Hecton Farm.  As in previous years it took the form of a fiendish quiz devised by one of the owners (jester's outfit!) and thanks to the expertise of another owner sound and pictures were relayed to teams sitting in separate rooms.  Between rounds people mingled and replenished their plates and glasses.  One part of the quiz involved identifying horses from the past three years with parts of the image blacked out.  The stable staff proved amazingly adept at this.

Stable staff had no trouble identifying this as Mab Dab.

Final scores were Staff Room 61, Back Room 100, Living Room 109.

New Blood At The Yard.

There was great excitement this morning among the owners as they viewed a new three year old in the yard.  It wasn't one of the horses recently added to the string but a charming collie that had great fun in the gallops field.  Aah!

When the going is sloppy.

After a workout on the rain sodden gallops everyone needs a good wash down!

You have to get the priorities right, dogs before horses.

Where are the horses? Haven't the foggiest!

An interesting time at the yard this morning.  Down on the gallops horses could be heard but not see!

I know they're here somewhere!

Meanwhile Mr Jack decided to help the staff clean the yard.

Celebration Saturday

It was one of those popular champagne breakfasts this week as we celebrated Uallrightharry's Plumpton victory.  The smoked salmon was there along with the fizz and the now traditional cake in the owner's colours.

The race was rerun on the television and, after riding out, the staff were acknowledged for the hard work they put in to make the success possible.

Harry's All Right!

Linda got her new National Hunt campaign off to a great start with a winner at Plumpton today when Uallrightharry won the extended 3 mile novices handicap chase under Brendan Powell.

Uallrightharry.

He was jumped off in third place in the eight runner field as they went at a modest gallop.  Sensing that the pace was too slow, Brendan pushed him into the lead and quickened after the 9th fence.  He continued to make the running until a challenger moved up two fences from home.  Harry continued to look strong then nearly spoilt it with a mistake at the last that for a moment looked as if it would end his race.  However he hardly lost momentum and travelled strongly to the line to win by 2 and a quarter lengths.

Harry's happy connections.

Earlier on the card Hab Sab had made a pleasing return to racing in the novices handicap hurdle and Mab Dab finished an encouraging 4th of six runners in the class 3 handicap hurdle, having earlier won the best turned out award..

Mab Dab after finishing 4th.