The Racehorse Story

Hi all,

Not sure if people will be interested, but began writing a blog last summer about our journey with owning a racehorse, and I have finally gone back to the topic (you will see why its been so long).


Hopefully it is ok to share in here....

 

Episode 1 - The Journey

Hi,

I've not kept the blog up to date, no one wants to read my diatribe regularly, especially nothing about 240 characters in length!!

Since last updating the blog, I have been involved in the FOB Partnership horse The Toojumpa, who managed to win on stable debut before a frustrating season of non completes and loss of form. I believe FOB Partnerships are continuing with her, but I am not.

Why?
The reason being is that I want to see the sport from another angle, I have been fortunate to be involved in two winning horses with Fergal. However both were experienced horses who were competing at lower levels, (The Toojumpa won off 93 and Project Mars won off 95 & 102) in handicaps. Both horses were brilliantly sourced by Sally and Fergal and both horses gave me the opportunity to make friends with other syndicate members.

FOB Partnerships is a brilliant thing, and I cannot recommend them high enough, but I wanted to see if I could do something different and with similar views of the friends I've made, it was decided to go and see if we could go on the "Journey" with a horse that we sourced.

Thankfully Sally has been a great help and she was delighted for the opportunity to develop and has agreed that the yard would train the new recruit for us.

How?
The million dollar question; how would we source a horse and what did we want? We had a honest conversation with six of the team, discussing what we wanted and what would put us off. These included what type of horse we wanted, how would we go about finding one and most importantly - what was the budget!!

This was pinned down to - NO TELESCOPES, no mares, and a "new" horse for the NH winter season.

So the first thing we did was to have a chat with Sally about if they had any horses hidden down the back of a sofa that might be suitable, and/or if they had any views on horses in Ireland that could be available. This came back with a couple of suggestions that we might want to watch for the next month or so of the P2P season.

However, Tattersalls Cheltenham was just around the corner, and we took the opportunity to see what the market looked like at Cheltenham. Bonkers was the answer, with the one horse that was suggested to us having a reserve around three times what was expected. The horse was sold at the sale, which showed us what a task it would be to get a horse to be within budget and with any form in the book.

One horse that went through the ring that was within budget was Copper Fox, who is in training with McCain, who has won a novice hurdle this summer. So it does show that finding winners at lower costs is possible.

I put out a couple of messages to others in the industry that I know, and one came back with a few suggestions, including a horse that has since won a bumper and went through the ring for a decent amount afterwards.

However, the same source then came back with a name... a name I won't be sharing for a good while yet!!

The horse is young, and its form looks moderate on paper, with an incomplete and then a low placed finish. However, the form of the latter is fantastic and when looking at the horse and its breeding, it was decided that it was of interest to many of the group.

Getting the horse purchased was interesting!! We had a few discussions about whether to go for it or wait for sales and the end of the P2P season. We asked Sally, Fergal and a few others about the form and the horses breeding, and all came back with similar answers...

"form is good" "worth a punt", "can't complain about the worth of form and who trains the others in the race".

So with only one of the group not happy, for which I am sorry about, we went ahead.

Then What?
The horse was already in the UK, so we kept him at the yard he was at, and he has summered well. He needed time in the field and has put on condition ready for going into training this month.

We needed to increase the membership of the syndicate, thankfully a couple of others were suggested and they have seen his page and form and decided to join us on the "journey". So with only one share left (get in touch!!) we are on the way to having a new horse in training for the winter.

To this point it has been an exciting few months, from going to the sales and leaving feeling bemused and quite frankly, out of depth, to having a horse ready to go into training with the form of its P2P race working out well.

Now is the journey, hopefully we will see him through his pre-training in fine form and then it is up to Fergals yard to see what ability he has and how much fun he can supply to the team this winter.

My hopes are simple -

To go racing with a horse that is competitive. If he is able to do that in bumpers or novice hurdles, that would be brilliant, but if not I hope we can get him on a handicap mark that allows him to be competitive.

It will be great to see the syndicate at the racecourse, hopefully with a pint or two and everyone enjoying the racing!

 

Episode 2 - The Very Long Journey

Since posting the blog on the 14th July 2022, a lot happened!!

At the time I didn't want to share the name of the horse, but he is called Rock Danse, and has now run twice under rules for us. In July 2022 he was in a field near Towcester under the watch of Tracey Leeson, and since then he has been at Jason Maguire's Ivy Lodge, Billy Worthingtons and at Fergals yard Ravenswell.

He has had quite the journey!!

When Rock Danse arrived at Tracey's he looked a shell of a horse, he had an overreach injury that wasn't healing particularly well, and he needed time in the field to get some condition.

please log in to view this image

Rock Danse - May 2022
He stayed at Tracey's before going into pre-training at Jason Maguire's Ivy Lodge, where he looked a completely different horse on arrival.

please log in to view this image

Rock Danse - 25th July 2022
He spent a lot of time on the water treadmill and began to strengthen up quickly, a few weeks later he again looked a different horse, developing quickly and gaining much needed condition as shown below.

please log in to view this image

Rock Danse - 5th August 2022.

He then went into training at Fergals, where they wanted to take their time and develop him for a bumper in the late Autumn. He started well, and we were aiming for a Chepstow bumper, but as that got closer his work deteriorated and we took a late decision to give him extra time. This would mean we were looking at a later bumper, this time at Bangor on Dee.

As Bangor came onto the radar, Rocky's work improved and we were looking forward to seeing him on course, this was due to be the 26th November 2022. We had arranged for most of the syndicate to be in attendance, and then it all began to unravel again.

I received a call the night before the race, saying that Rocky wasn't able to go to Bangor, and that he had stood on a nail. What accompanied this call was an image that made me feel quite uncomfortable!!

please log in to view this image

It was apparent that Rocky had been quite lucky that the nail hadn't gone into the bone and that he would hopefully heal quickly and we would be looking at another small delay. Alas that wasn't the case.

The injury got infected and box rest wasn't particularly nice for Rocky, he started to lose condition and the infection was pretty bad. We took the decision to take him out of Ravenswell and give him time to heal at a small yard. In stepped Billy Worthington, who runs a yard that was used by David Dennis for racing. This yard was perfect for Rocky, it had a swimming pool that meant that he could do exercise without putting pressure on the injury.

Rocky then got back to soundness and went back to Ravenswell, where he again went lame and the decision was taken to cut the season short and give him as much time as we could to full recover.

So it was back to Billy's and box rest. He spent the first part of 2023 in his box, and then just as the spring racing got going, he was able to move back out into the field. The field then turned into pre-training and all was good, he was coming to himself and was delighting the yard.



So it was time to go back to Ravenswell and become a racehorse! We got him ready, and despite a few hiccups along the way (Firm ground at Hereford) we managed to get him out into a Chepstow maiden hurdle.

The story is to be continued!!

 

Fascinating stuff, Nass, read every word. You and your partners really are giving reasonable and sensible ownership a right go and deserve success. The very best of luck with Rock Danse.

 

Ditto

 

Interesting question, and would be interesting to see how different @stick reply is to mine!

For me, I have no financial target, other than us to have enough money in the account to keep him going. Racehorses are expensive!

My target is to have fun, spend time with people I like (and @stick) and to see the enjoyment it gives them. I might try and write a bit about this in more detail for the Uttoxeter update, but the delight the others had at Uttoxeter was worth all the hassle and effort I put in. One of them has had horses for quite a while and said it was one of the best days they've had at a course.

I am, as you all know, a nerd. So learning about the sport, how to run a syndicate and how to deal with people in the sport is very interesting, and hopefully I have plenty of time to continue developing interest and skills. It would be great to continue having horses in the future.

 

It is something I have always wanted but not been able to do for various reasons. We did buy a lovely thoroughbred mare but she was used for breeding show jumpers. It's still not too late but not sure which route I would take. In the past, when we went to Auctions, I would pick out no more than 3 on pedigree and rely on my wife and daughter to check them out in real life (ie conformation, movement etc). If I didn't attend I would be on the phone to tell them when to stop bidding. Came back with 2 from Ireland. Funniest story was at an auction in Bucks where we were bidding for a horse we really liked and my wife kept upping the bid. Eventually I managed to hold down her hand and told the auctioneer "That's it". He laughed and thanked us for pushing up the price. At the same auction another lovely horse didn't reach the reserve and went unsold. We went to see them after and Amanda rode the horse in the Arena, made an offer but it was less than they wanted so we left it, having fixed our budget

One day I hope to get to a thoroughbred auction, having earmarked a few on pedigree, and get something to have some fun with (even if my days might be numbered). I think I would probably line up just a few interested investors, in case we were tempted by something outside our budget and have them on the phone just in case

So all in all, I am very interested in your experience with a small syndicate Nass and thanks very much for sharing

 

I agree Nass. It's about the experience and enjoyment. Profit is a bonus. Ability to afford it a must.

We don't insure our horses, whilst they are with us, because we have too many (and not doing anything) to make it economical. But whenever, we have had them in training/competition they were always insured for vet fees and loss of use. One of our show jumping ponies developed an incurable back problem so had to be retired but, although we used her successfully as a broodmare, the insurance paid out £20k

 

If you go into this with a financial target you are setting yourself up for disappointment. I had a good year when we purchased him and I paid for my share with the winnings from gambling. I set aside three years of training costs as I thought if he was winning he would pay for longer and if he was poor we would most likely give him away.
I didn’t envisage him missing a whole season and I was really disappointed that he missed the opportunity to run in bumpers. We have had to be patient and also ask each other some tough questions but it has been a great thrill to finally get to the track with a horse we purchased ourselves. Every other horse I have been involved in has been someone else’s find.
Nass briefly went over the sales angle and by golly you should see the notes on horses I sent him and how much I thought they might go for. The list contains a fair few successes but the optimist in me hopes that Rocky might be better than all of them.
It is very hard to impress upon a trainer that you want a say in the horses programme and at times I have felt they think we are a pain in the arse but like I say, they have a hundred horses, we only have one, so who knows best.
His last run raised one or two eyebrows but honestly it was a trip into the unknown as we had no idea how he would act on the ground. The lad would certainly admit that it wasn’t his best five minutes and had he ridden to plan we might have had a winner. At least we know that he has a bit of talent. Planning where to go next is real fun and I sure the yard will have their heads in their hands when we share it with them.
I really want to see him win or at least be in a tussle next time out as we still need to learn what he is like in a battle. He really does fit the cliche, whatever he does over hurdles is a bonus. I cannot wait to send him novice chasing and definitely prefer that route to a year in handicap hurdles.
Nass is an awful photographer and his pictures never do him justice. He is a very handsome boy and has the nicest nature. His only quirk is he doesn’t always go when you want him to so the jockeys have to be aware of that. And if there are sheep around….you can forget it!

 

They know I’m a pain in the arse. The rest of you get it easy. I can imagine what they’re going to say on Friday when I go in with the next race suggestion!!

as for photography…. You spent an hour making Billy hold Rocky in front of a big rock. That’s the difference!!

 

I joked about the latter!!

No reason that we have gone left handed. Personally don’t have an issue running him anywhere, he should stay up hills fine and he is more athletic than big.

 

Good luck on your journey, whoever is involved.

It sounds like ye have a win already getting him to the track all things considered. If any of my sarcasm was taken in a negative way when I joked about the Uttoxeter run, it wasn't meant that way.

They were two lovely educational runs especially looking down the line for over fences and longevity. Hope he keeps sound.

 

would need to be rated around 125 come next February

 

What an interesting read and I wish you Nass, Stick and your syndicate every success.

I for one am looking forward to this story being continued as he looked to run really well at Uttoxeter so no more stepping on nails (ouch)

All roads lead to Cheltenham UP THE ROCK DANSE

 

Just twigged, that was my 80th. Amanda hired an entire domain + caterers for that w/e; Some party that was

 

Race 1 - Chepstow

So entries came and went, and we got to declaration time!!

Then getting tickets sorted, and then the period known as the night before nerves!!

Normally people get these about how the horse is going to run, but for me it was about the past experiences, would the phone ring, and would we have another issue before race day.

It didn't ring, but I didn't have a particularly restful night either!! The expectation of seeing Rocky running, and would the dream of the journey be over after just one run?

As most people know, I am quite a studious reader of racing form, and for me there are very few places better for starting a racehorses career than at Chepstow. The course brings together runners from the West Country, Wales, Lambourn and the Cotswolds, and the race Rocky was due to run in was no exception.

We had runners from Paul Nicholls, Dan Skelton, Evan Williams, Kim Bailey, Warren Greatrex, Joe Tizzard and numerous other names synonymous with National Hunt racing.

A big field, and what to expect? Rocky hadn't been seen for 600+ days, since finishing midfield in an Irish P2P, and here he was taking on the might of Paul Nicholls.

My expectations were simple, a clear round and for him to finish the race, and if he was finishing the race well, then that would be a bonus. If he didn't finish, or was totally tailed off, we would have had to discuss whether he was suitable for racing, and that is what I didn't want to happen on debut after such a long journey!

Yet, despite this, arriving at Chepstow I was optimistic of a good run, he had schooled well at home and I believed in his form and what he showed on the gallops at home. The rain bucketing it down as I arrived at the course didn't help though, was a slog in the mud what we really wanted on debut? After such a long time off?

The rain eased slowly, thankfully as I needed to dash!! Walking into the courses O&T entrance was good, stating the horses name and getting the much important lunch voucher and racecard. Then it was to the O&T bar, for a coffee and a catch up with an old friend (He is old, as well as the friendship) who had trumped me with his journey from Spain!

Two others in the syndicate joined us, and we caught up with other owners from Fergals, the yard had seven runners on the card!!

"What are expectations" *20!!

Our race was second on the card, so we watched the first division of the race, which had some very interesting horses in, including a form horse who had a handicap mark of 119!! And he only managed third place. Were we going to be up against such good horses in the second division? Hmmmm.

We wandered down to see Rocky come into the pre-parade ring, and were met by Fergal, in his jovial form as usual. Discussions about sheep and the like ensued and then Rocky walked in, looking great and settled.

twitter Video


From the pre-parade to the parade ring, where Liam joined us for a chat about tactics, about expectations and whether there was much talk in the saddling room about the runners in the race. It sounded like others had plenty of expectations in the race, and that Liam was going to give Rocky a wide ride to allow him to see his hurdles and for him to have a sensible debut.

I then made the mistake of looking at the market, and he had been nibbled into 18/1 in the market, which was very surprising, and raised expectations of a good run.

Chepstow Video

Rocky settled well and ran to expectations, finishing the race well under hands and heels riding and finishing 8th of 15. Importantly he had a clean run, jumped well and showed signs to suggest that he was a racehorse.

We then enjoyed the rest of the afternoon, and hoped we would get a nice video the next morning showing Rocky being trotted up.

The video arrived, and it meant that we could start planning the future!!!

 

Lovely introduction after all the troubles

 

I see the great grand sire produced Long Run and Bick Bucks