As the year 2020 comes to a close many of us will be glad to see the end of the strangest year of all of our lives. Although the unprecedented times are far from over as we head into 2021, we can all only hope that things will get better and life can get back to some normality.
As out of the ordinary and as worrying as it has been, it's not all been bad for us. as I've said before, we are fortunate to live where we do and doing the job we do as we are always busy; horses or animals don't know there's a worldwide pandemic and still need to be cared for so unless we left our little world at sandfield farm or watched the news you wouldn't know there was anything wrong in the world
Back in June, the BHA did a fantastic job getting us back racing, albeit without owners or spectators, but at least we were still able to race and luckily have been able to keep going since. All the racecourses have done a wonderful job making it as covid as safe as possible, and a lot of them were very good at looking after the stable staff providing food and refreshments. As a whole, even in this freakish year, everyone has had, we have had a good season with the horses and have a lot to be thankful for. 36 winners, that's one more than last year, and 5 of those were 2yr olds, and our biggest race win was the Scarborough stakes with Tarboosh.
This year's other big changes were the retirement of many of our older horses, stable stars like Jonny cavagin, Desert Ace, Groundworker, Patrick, Buccaneers Vault, start Time, Manhood, Gamesome, and Merry Banter, which we will all miss. But as well as all those stars, two of the big boys retired too, Line of reason and Final venture, who flew the Midgley/Taylors bloodstock flag worldwide and for so many years and gave us a lot of special memories. After so many finishing life as a racehorse, many of them have been replaced with younger horses, and some of them have been exciting to watch this season already and have proved to be serious prospects for the future. In addition to all our yard favorites, there are also 18 yearlings to look forward to next year. so, all in all, there's plenty to look forward to in 2021, and we would like to thank all our owners and staff for their continued support, and to wish everyone a happy and safe new year, and let us hope we can all meet again soon in more normal circumstances