Round up of the the weeks action.

A fun week with lots happening. On Tuesday Stever Barter came by with wife Trish and her brother Lee and his wife Sam to see Socrates the yearling half brother to Who’sthedaddy (more of him later) and Lisathedaddy who both managed to win two races for the yard. They have a half share along with owner breeders Clive and Trish Wilson. We had a really fun lunch up at The Pheasant afterwards.

Wednesday was a busy day with two runners, Who’sthedaddy was first up at Lingfield in an apprentice handicap. It was great to be able to give Kimberley Van der Vegt a ride as she bids to get her career on the track going. Kimberley had a couple of rides last year but probably wasn’t quite ready for it. She has worked hard in the interim at improving her riding and her physical fitness. From a tricky draw she rode a nice race but never got the chance to save any ground being stuck out wide for much of the race. The pair finished a creditable fifth beaten about four lengths over a trip shy of Who’sthedaddy’s best. He may line up again next Friday at Wolverhampton in a nine and a half furlong race which should suit him better than the mile he ran over this week. It was a fun day with owners Clive and Trish Wilson and great of them to give Kimberley this opportunity. We had a good lunch a fun afternoon and they even decided us to join us at Kempton on the way home for Trimoulet’s race.

Trimoulet was our second runner, this time at Kempton in the feature race of the card. Although drawn wide, he broke smartly and was able to go get to the front. Given a well judged ride by Tom Queally he stayed out in front holding off the late charge of several rivals in the final furlong. Encouragingly Tom felt that he would cope with a step up in grade which he means he should be competitive in some nice races. It was Trimoulet’s fourth win of the year from twelve starts and he has been a credit to the team. We will see what the handicapper does but as he seemed to really enjoy the course and distance it may be that we look towards the Roseberry Stakes Handicap at the end of March as a longer term target with a prep run at the beginning of March.

Being a very big horse Trimoulet was always going to need time. He had a couple of issues as a younger horse but the time and patience in letting him develop in his own time is really paying dividends and he is still on the improve. His last two starts have been his two best in terms of timeform ratings.

Meanwhile at home the yearlings are progressing nicely. Plenty have been on the gallops for a couple of weeks now and there is another group getting ready for their first trip. In this group a couple of earlier looking types including an Aussie Rules colt bred by Peter Onslow called Av A Word.

Also at home are a group of two year old fillies all building towards their first run, including Virtuous Belle, Sonnentanz and Hilltop Ranger. As ever we’ve been collecting data on them during their work and whilst its early days its always encouraging to see a horse with a long stride in a horses work. Our Equinity equipment that we use to record data on the works collects information on speed, stride length and heart rate. It then produces various graphs to present the information as seen below. Below is a plot of stride length against speed for Sonnentanz on Saturday morning.