A catch up on the past week,

There is a lot still happening at High View Stables despite the turf flat season having come to an end.

We had three runners this week, Alaskan Phantom returned from a lay off and was a bit slow away from the widest draw and had far too much to do to ever really make an impact at Chelmsford on Thursday, fading after using too much energy up getting into contention on the outside. She has blown away the cobwebs and with a looming date at the December Sales will probably be in action fairly shortly as she has come out of the race well. Bailiwick ran later on in a seven furlong handicap on the same card and was a creditable fourth having met a bit of trouble in running. He is finding his feet in handicaps, this was his third run of the year he and should be a fun horse this winter as he is game and tough. David and Gerarda Olver who have shares in Hilltop Ranger who is coming together for the Diskovery Partnership and will hopefully be on the course soon were enjoying a day at the races. It was also good to catch up with David DaCosta who owned our very first winner, Spin Again who was great servant, winning three times for us.

Spin Again with Daniel

Mandria rather let the side down on Saturday evening at Wolverhampton and whilst we seem to have cured her stalls antics, she is over enthusiastic in her races and becoming a tricky ride. Out of a listed placed mare and good looking to boot she ought to make a nice broodmare and it may be that is now the route for her. She is winner and her two year old half sister is also a winner this year. She has a gorgeous Invincible Spirit colt yearling half brother and a foal sister by Dark Angel so there ought to be plenty happening in the family in coming years.

Meanwhile on the home front the yearlings are starting to venture out into the big wide world, its a lot of patient dedicated work from the team riding these young horses in their formative days. Every day brings a new adventure and a new challenge. We have an exciting bunch for next year. Among the more precocious types is a Kheleyf half brother to Trinity River who was a tough little two year old for us and her owners Pat and Jill Whitten, who came for a visit on Thursday to see how their colt is coming along. He is the last foal out of their mare Blane Water and we really hope he can sign off her broodmare career off in style.

Trinity River breaking her maiden by five lengths under Silvestre De Sousa

We still have shares available in some very nice yearlings. So have a look at our  Horses For Sale Page for more details.

On Monday there was a National Trainers Federation meeting for the region where many things were discussed including the new two year old race program. It will be interesting to see how replacing the majority of maiden races with novice races in the early season affects the fields. We think the plan was probably rushed through, it would have made more sense to announce that this would begin in 2017, so that horses could have been bought with this program in mind at the yearling sales. It also doesn’t make sense for British racing not to have a system for young horses coming up through the ranks that varies from the maiden system that is used in all the other major racing jurisdictions. It will certainly result in fewer individual winners which surely can’t be good for anyone, we all want winners, the more individual horses that win races the more fun the sport is for everyone!