A Place to Call Home
Over the past couple of months we have transitioned from Hamilton Stables down the road to Southgate Stables. At the time of our purchase the yard was operating as three separate entities, but will now see us restore it back together as one yard like it was once historically.
On arrival we gave the entire yard a good steam clean, a lick of paint and disinfected the whole place to ensue the horses moved into a healthy, clean new home. The horses moved into the yard in various stages through late July and they were joined by the jump horses in August.
We will be opening the new yard to the public for Newmarket Open Weekend, which this year is taking place on 22nd and 23rd. The yard opening will take place between 9am and 12.30pm on the Sunday. In the afternoon I will be partaking in the Racing Personality Show Jumping. Last year I had a go at commentating but this year I will be taking part in the show jumping itself. Having show jumped in my younger years, I will feel much more comfortable being back on a horse! The whole weekend is a great initiative and for those interested, whether it be for either day or both, click HERE.
The horses have been in great form over the summer and I have been pleased with how things have gone so far. It gave me great pleasure when Sandkissed won at Redcar on the August Bank Holiday Saturday. She has not been the easiest to train, but her win was a victory for perseverance not just by the team here, but also by her owner Simon King. Simon has been with us from the very start and Sandkissed was his very first racehorse purchase, making it a particually special day.
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Another to have given the team and her owners White Diamond Racing – if you have twitter you need to find the video – great joy was when Really Super won at Worcester at the end of August. She did not enjoy running on the Flat earlier in the year, but sent back over hurdles the previous month she ran well. Hopefully now she has got her head in front, we can get plenty more wins and ultimately black type would be great! August proved to be a good month for White Diamond with Blessed To Empress breaking her turf maiden the previous week at Brighton.
Having used Baileys horse feed throughout my training career, it was brilliant when we were kindly sent Esprit De Baileys earlier in the year, by the company with the aim of going over jumps in the winter. However, we thought we would give him a few spins on the Flat first and he won on stable debut at Yarmouth on 31st July. He was run back too quickly when disappointing us at Chelmsford, but returned to the winners’ enclosure at Goodwood earlier this week. Happy Odyssey nearly gave us a double later that day, when narrowly denied in a Class 2 nursery. While this was her fourth second place in five starts – her other was a victory – she is nothing but consistent. That comment can also be made for Entertaining Ben, who has been in great form for our own Racing Club, winning at Brighton in August, having been placed their two weeks before and was only caught close home at Chelmsford to be second on the 28th off a career high mark for us.
As mentioned earlier the winter jump horses are all back in training. There have been plenty of people asking what Kalashnikov will be doing this year and the plan is most definitely to head over the larger obstacles, starting out somewhere in late October or early November. Mercian Prince will be aimed at those high-value handicaps over intermediate distances, while we also have high hopes for Hawthorn Cottage, who improved with each run last season, culminating in victory at Cheltenham in April. There are also a number of unraced horses that will appear as the season gets underway and I was delighted over the summer when Mrs May, a long-time National Hunt owner breeder, sent us a trio of horses. 
With the yard being dual purpose this is a busy time, with plenty of Flat runners and the National Hunt horses being wound up. Added to this is the fact that the yearling sales are also underway. We came away from Doncaster empty handed, but that was the nature of the sale, but I will be in attendance at Fairyhouse and Goffs over the following two weeks, before October in Newmarket so fingers crossed we will find some nice ones along the way. Please do get in contact if you are interested in joining the fun of racehorse ownership here at Amy Murphy Racing.
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