The Racehorse Story

Race 6 - Exeter
I guess it is ironic that I started the race 5 review with saying that writing a blog post is positive because something interesting has happened!

We came out of Sandown with the feeling that Rocky needed 3 miles and perhaps testing ground would be where he was at his best. We had seen this at Hexham, and at Uttoxeter earlier in the season. So we had planned on giving Rocky another month before his next run at Wincanton.

However, the rain came, and the conditions were as we had hoped, and we found a race at Exeter, which was twenty days after Sandown. The race was a 3 mile open handicap hurdle, for horses rated 0-120, which looked an ideal opportunity from Rocky's mark of 116.

The yard were for this, he then started to show more in his work in the week before Exeter, so we went to the course with expectations of a good run. I guess this is why horse racing can be so difficult!!

Seven of the eight shares in the syndicate were in attendance at Exeter, and the preliminaries went well. When I say this, it was the drive to the course (picking the man from Spain up at the airport on the way), the beverages in the owners room, and the katsu curry lunch.

The man from Spain managed to tip a 28/1 winner and it was like a usual day at the races. Leaving the owners room for the course, I began to feel the nerves. However seeing Rocky in the parade ring my nerves reduced, he looked very well, really relaxed and taking the day in.




We were joined by Charlie again (assistant trainer) and we chatted about the day, the weather and the like, and then Daire joined us. He talked us through his plan, sitting prominently before kicking when the time was right. The key was to get a good position and to jump well as he has all season.

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Then came the race, Rocky took up a prominent position and jumped well for the first couple of hurdles. We then saw a bit of interference on the turn, but he retained his position and jumped well again. This remained the case until they turned for home, he was niggled to keep his position and then after 4 out he wasn't able to go with the pace. Sitting in 5th place, and remained there over three out.

Then came a moment I wasn't expecting, and to be honest I have watched it back numerous times and I still do not understand why it happened. Rocky seemed to jump two out in his usual way, barely touching the hurdle, but he crumpled after landing, sending Daire flying and I will be honest I thought we might have been going home without a horse.

Thankfully he got back to his feet, slowly, and then continued to jump the last hurdle (very slowly) before being caught by the lightning reactions of Kaitlin and Charlie. At this point half the syndicate had made their way to the parade ring, but I was stuck to my spot, kind of in shock.

So making my way to the parade ring, I didn't know what to expect, other than that Rocky was up. I didn't know if Daire was ok, and I was still fearing that injury had happened.

Rocky was back in the pre-parade ring when I got to them, with the man from Spain and another giving him a pat. This was pure relief to see, and whilst he had a muddy and grassy face, and a small cut, he seemed none the worse. A truly relief filled moment.

Now, as you might imagine, the drive back to Bristol airport was full of "what ifs" and whilst I am normally one to analyse, probably over analyse, I actually think that I can just draw a line through Exeter and start a fresh.

The video came in from the yard that evening, and then the next morning, showing Rocky was well!!




The key for me now is seeing Rocky well at Ravenswell and then deciding what we do next, do we go again over hurdles, or do we take him out of training and go for novice chases next season? All to be decided, but one thing is for sure, I am glad we still have Rocky and we still have the chance to make such decisions.

 

So glad to hear horse and jockey escaped serious injury in a quite nasty-lookingh fall. That was indeed a shock. Strange to get one slightly amusing thing in your post, in an otherwise very serious account, and that was the references to the "Man from Spain". Just sounded to me like a leading character in a John Le Carré novel?

(Good to hear the MfS got a 28/1 winner though. Well done to him)

 

Thank goodness he is okay and lives to fight another day.

 

Great he's sound and well and you can plot a path fir him.

 

Didn't see the fall but, by the sound of it, I'm glad I didn't. Glad to hear Rocky and Daire are OK. Interested to see the next episode

 

Thanks for the update Nass, appreciated. A wider query re racehorse ownership is how you find the overall experience with a trainer who has so many horses. I can’t get my head around how these top trainers do the job they do with that volume to train. The resources needed to run an operation on that scale must be phenomenal. That said every time I see Fergal O’Brien (last time was at Ludlow in January) at the races he seems to be totally engaged with each ownership group. It looks like a fun experience with him which doesn’t always look to be the case with some other trainers! Looking through the BHA NH trainers table it seems all of the top trainers have reduced numbers of HIT than a few seasons back. I’m pretty sure Nicholls, Henderson, Skelton and O’Brien were all pushing towards the 200 mark. Now they’re around 150 and O’Brien on 120. I wonder if that is the impact of the state of the economy on folk owning racehorses, trainers just not having the resources to train those numbers and cutting their cloth accordingly or a combination of both.

 

Really good question, and I was talking to @stick about this on the way back from Exeter. I think views will differ on this too!

I am fortunate that I am 20 minutes away from the yard, so I get to go up regularly and I have WhatsApp chats with Fergal, Sally and Charlie the new assistant trainer, so I can ask questions of all three if I require and they all answer pretty quickly. However that is because I head up the syndicate and they know that by dealing with me, they are reducing their burden of dealing with 8 members of a syndicate. I am not sure others would see their relationship with the yard in the same light!

Interesting that you see Fergal with owners, he has only been to one of Rocky's races, and last week was at the sales rather than at Exeter. This doesn't bother me, but I am sure others in the syndicate have a differing feel on this.

I think trainers at the top end are looking for quality rather than quantity, with Skelton, Fergal and Olly Murphy being three very different sides to this. Skelton seems to be very much in the numbers game, in terms of getting horses running, he has averaged 3.4 runs to each horse in his yard (data from last week) compared to 2.144 runs for Fergal and a mere 1.7 runs per horse from Nicky Henderson.

Fergal will have many of his runners in the summer, you can look at his numbers of runners since April 2023

May 65
June 40
July 44
August 26
September 34
October 58
November 66
December 48
January 36
February 31

You wouldn't see many NH yards with same number of runners in May, June, July as they have in November December and January.

Fergal is trying to keep the boat afloat by being an all year trainer, and they do it brilliantly. However, do they need to change to get to the next level of training? Hopefully a Cheltenham Festival winner will continue to help with this, as might the changing of the guard in the jockeys at the yard. Or maybe the rise of owners like The Good Stock Syndicate who are buying 60k+ horses rather than the usual 20/40k for other syndicates.

Olly Murphy is buying horses for bigger money, he is fortunate with his owners, and as such you are seeing a bit of uplift in his yard. Albeit his great novice hurdle hope has disappointed, eh @stick

 

So generally I am really pleased with the yard, we get good communication (probably because of me) and even when I can't get to the yard, they will send gallop videos etc when asked.

I get help from their race planner when required, I take an active level in this though, which most other owners/syndicates don't seem to do so, which again hopefully makes those involved in the syndicate feel that it is different than a Middleham Park Racing/Foxtrot/etc and even a yard syndicate. We generally do have control on what we are wanting Rocky to do, and I fight for that right.

They key though is going to the yard, I can talk to the lass who rides Rocky daily, the jockeys, the trainer, and any other member of their team, and they are all nice people who seem to genuinely care for the horse.

 

We’ve decided it’s time for Rocky’s holiday. I’ll try and post a bit of detail in the next few days.

 

Following the win of Rowdy Romro to day, that looks a good boost for Rocky if he's turned out at some stage in a 2.5 hurdle in very soft/heavy ground or 2miles to 2.5 miles in similar ground in a chase handicap. Looking forward to seeing him after his well earned holiday

 

Not posted for a while, but thought I would share a few photos of Rocky's summer.

We moved Rocky up to Billy's yard for the summer, and he is out in a field with his friends. He seems to be enjoying himself and hopefully is eating all the nice fresh grass that is now growing in abundance after such a wet winter.

I look forward to him coming back in from the field, and starting his preparations for a crack at chasing. I however don't think he has a care in the world about that!