Point to Pointing has returned and we are so excited to be back to spending our weekends enjoying such a wonderful sport. Dunsmore was on the 5th November and we had two runners. Diamatiste made his debut in the 4 and 5 year old Maiden. He finished a very pleasing 4th and will have learnt an awful lot for this experience. We bought him from the Land Rover Store Sales in 2022 and although he was ready to run last season, the ground never played in his favour, so we decided to give him a holiday ready for this season. 

Longshanks made his stable debut for us in the Grassroots Conditions Race under last season’s Champion Novice Jockey, Callum Pritchard. It was all about allowing Longshanks to enjoy himself and hopefully allow him to regain some confidence. He certainly did just that and Callum gave him a lovely ride to power home in front by 8 lengths. We were delighted for his owner Richard House. Richard’s daughter also had the winner of the Mixed Open with From The Heart so it was a very pleasing day for the family. Richard has been a longstanding supporter of racing and we are thrilled to have got Longshanks back to winning ways! 

We headed to Badbury Rings this weekend with Paloma Blue and Love That. Blackmore Racing Club’s Love That had an educational run in the Maiden and we learnt a lot about her moving forward. Hopefully we can find a slightly slower paced race this side of Christmas for her. Paloma Blue had his first outing of the season and ran in an extremely hot Mixed Open. Josh was not hard on him and he had a good blow after. This was most certainly not his Gold Cup and we will now plot our way with him with the aim to go back to Cheltenham Hunter Chase Evening. 

Back with the National Hunt horses, Stratton Oakmont made his seasonal debut and finished 3rd at Warwick. His jumping was not as fluent as it could be, but the engine in him is very impressive. Hopefully one day they will both click at the same time and he will get the win that both him and his owners deserve! Iris Des Issards outran his huge odds of 150/1 at Exeter to come 4th. He finished behind some very classy horses and we hope the future is bright for him! Stellar Stream was hit with a heart defib problem last season, so it was great to see him make a pleasing Chase debut around Ffos Las in some pretty awful conditions on Sunday. Hopefully he can build on this for next time. He is one of the horses in the yard that certainly won’t mind if it keeps raining but as for the rest of us, we have had enough now!!!