Well, here we are, the beginning of the New Year and raring to get going again. We finished 2021 on a total of 33 winners so let's hope we can beat that total this year. Unfortunately, we saw a few old faithful faces retire or move on to pastures new last season, including Buccaneers Vault, Tarboosh, Pavers Pride, Sambucca Spirit, Longroom, to name a few. Still, we also gained a few new faces in the yard, which we are looking forward to running next season. Visit our horses in training page, and you can catch up on some of the newbies in the yard and see some of the old favourites.
We had some horses in particular last season that had a fantastic year; One being Saluti, who was in the form of his life; he won at Nottingham in June. He then won a big pot at Newcastle, conquering the first race of the Racing league series; back at Newcastle, he won the final race of the series bagging another big prize. In September, he then finished the year with a victory at Pontefract, earning him a well-deserved winter break.
Two horses that excelled last year were both bought from Newmarket Horses in training in 2020, only costing £1000 each. Harrogate and Thrilla in Manila were the biggest bargains we've had for years.
Harrogate was second twice for us at Catterick before winning at Ripon. After that, he won at Musselburgh before going back to Ripon, where he had his third season victory. He has been such a fun horse all season, as has Thrilla in Manila, who kept hitting the crossbar before eventually bolting up by four and a half lengths at Hamilton and then winning again later in the season up at Ayr.
Now we couldn't write this without mentioning another horse that had his best season, Van Gerwen. Victorious three times in one season is not something we would ever have expected from him, and it's something he has never achieved before. However, one of the great characters in the yard, Van G, knows what he likes and what he doesn't; and last year, the old boy was feeling good about himself as he excelled himself winning at Ripon in May, Pontefract in July, and at Redcar in October.
Another horse we have had so much fun with this season was Ventura Express, his first run for us was in April at Pontefract, and he bolted up by three and a half lengths. We went back to Pontefract twice more and got beat but conquered the next time, and he won easily by four lengths. He has been a consistent horse all season and gave the boys a great day out at York Races finishing third in the jump jockeys Nunthorpe under Daryl Jacob.
After missing a year away from the track Good luck fox proved he was worth waiting for this season, placed in his first three runs he then got his head in front at Thirsk in May then won again in June up at Musselburgh. Ballintoy Harbour started last year with a bang; she won the first time out at Newcastle in April and again at Newmarket in July. James Watt also had a good season. In June, he won at Ripon and gave us a winner at our favorite track, York, in July.
Militia was his consistent self again this year and won two races at his most loved track, Catterick, same with Buniann, who won his two races this season at his beloved Newcastle. Two-year-old Texas Man showed plenty of promise ending the season with back-to-back wins, firstly at Catterick and then following up at Haydock; he could be an exciting prospect for this year.
Generally, by December, we are very quiet and have no runners. Still, this season we were lucky to finish the year with two winners, both coming from The Bell Conductor at Southwell, and hopefully, he will continue to run on the all-weather in the new year.
Other winners this season included Run this way, Regular Income, Mid winster, latin five and Mr Orange.
Also it was big year for Wendy as she took part in the Macmillan Ride of their lives charity race at York racecourse in September and raised a grand total of £17,809, So all in all it hasn't been too bad a year and We would like to take this opportunity to wish all our loyal owners and supporters a very Happy and Prosperous New Year, lets hope 2022 gives us plenty of winners and that they all come home safe!