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Johnny Can Go & An Exeter 1-2! We had a great day at Exeter on Tuesday with Stratton Oakmont (Ben Godfrey) and Longshanks (Callum Pritchard) both running cracking races coming home 1st and 2nd in the 3m handicap Hurdle. We were hopeful both would run a good race and we couldn’t split them beforehand but Oak just got the better of Longshanks up the run-in to win by 3 lengths. It was lovely to have plenty of Oak’s owners in attendance to see him win his second race of the season. We are so glad he ran well after being hammered with weight last time out at Wincanton when coming 2nd to an extremely well Handicapped horse. Longshanks will get his day in the sun – he has ran ever so consistently this season and hopefully he will repay his wonderful owners with the winner they deserve. Both Oak and Longshanks have both enjoyed stints back in Point to Points and it really has paid off with their confidence.  We had our first 4 year old runner on Saturday in Go Johnny Go at Milborne St Andrews Point to Point. JD Moore purchased him at the Tattersalls July Store Sale for €4,000 and although being a bit backwards when being broken in, he has actually come to hand very quickly. He won by a neck from odds on favorite Posh Dude, who is out of the prolific Point to Point mare, Posh Totty. Josh, Emilie and Tom have all done a brilliant job of producing Johnny and he now looks to have an exciting future ahead of him.  We have been quiet in regards to other Point to Point runners, mostly due to the fact that it keeps on raining and a lot of the meetings have been unfortunately called off! Hopefully the lovely spring weather is just around the corner and we can enjoy the second half of the Point to Point season! We have entries at Garthorpe, Larkhill, Kilworthy and Cotley this weekend, so fingers crossed for a successful one!

North Wales National Winners! We have lost a huge amount of meetings both National Hunt and Point to Pointing, because of the weather. It is a huge shame to all the organisers after all their hard work. Buckfastleigh has been rearranged to this weekend and fingers crossed the rain doesn’t affect their fourth attempt of holding a meeting! The Kings Writ reappeared at Badbury Rings and put up a good performance to finish 3rd in the Mixed Open under Josh. We lost Didmarton on Saturday due to snow which was a huge shame. Charlton Horethorne luckily went ahead and we had a successful day! Mount Mason dead heated in the 4 & 5yo Maiden under Josh for Shannon Lodge Racing. We purchased him in the summer of 2022 at the Tattersalls May Sale as a 3yo. New recruit, Whitsand Bay, made his debut for us and won the Restricted well under Darren for John and Sonia Gardener. A handful of our babies headed back to Charlton Horethorne on Monday for schooling, which all went very well! We can now plan races for a few of them going forward with the first one entered up this weekend at Buckfastleigh. Stratton Oakmont ran another brilliant race for Kayley Woollacott Racing Club at Wincanton when finishing 2nd to a horse who was carrying 2st2lb less than him. Longshanks redeemed himself when he headed back to Exeter and finished 2nd beaten 4.5L in a 3m Handicap Hurdle. Stellar Stream took a step up in trip to run in the North Wales National Chase at Bangor-on-Dee over 3m5f. He led from flag fall and stayed on stoutly to win by 1L and picked up a good prize pot in doing so for loyal owners Jane and Steve Slough. He will be a great horse to go to war with over these marathon trips and is a very exciting prospect going forward.  Love That has been sold on to go under rules with trainer Mike Smith. We wish new connections the best of luck with her! Blackmore Racing Club have welcomed a newcomer in Important Notice, who has come over from Ireland after having 3 runs for Cormac Doyle. Hopefully he will provide the club with plenty of fun. We also welcome Bruce Gobbler for Richard House. He has had a few runs over hurdles for Philip Hobbs & Johnson White and hopefully enjoys the switch the Point to Points.

A Soggy But Busy January! It seems to have been such a long time since we last did a blog and it was – back at the beginning of January! The past month has flown by and we have been extremely busy with more horses coming back into work and getting the now 4 year olds back into work! January saw both Wadebridge and Chipley hold Point to Points and we unfortunately lost the first and second meetings due to be held at Buckfastleigh due to the awful weather!! Roll back to the 7th January, we headed to Wadebridge. Did Ja Ever made her yard debut albeit a month later than we planned after meeting a minor bump in the road! She ran a very pleasing race to finish 3rd in the Maiden under Josh with Liwah behind her in 4th under Darren Andrews. Two weeks later, we took 4 to Chipley and had a brilliant day! The Kings Writ strutted back into the winners enclosure after taking the Tiverton Foxhounds Hunt Race. Lucky Lara finished in 2nd in the same race after not being on the track since November 2022. Bang On Target ran a super race to finish 4th in a decent Intermediate and Hearts Corner was just touched off in the Restricted by a progressive horse of Tom Ellis’.  Onto February and on the 4th we headed in two directions. Mount Mason made his debut at Garthorpe under Darren Andrews to finish 3rd. He is a lovely horse for the future and will come on alot for that. Sixteen Letters made his seasonal debut at Larkhill in what will be one of the hottest races of the season, The Coronation Cup. He finished 4th and no doubt will be back in the winners enclosure soon. It’s safe to say, age has not yet caught up with him! His enthusiasm for racing is incredible. Love That was back on the track and on a recovery mission since her poor run at Badbury Rings when she turned out to be under the weather. Hannah Morgan has done a fabulous job with her and this showed when she took the Maiden Conditions Race by a length and going away the whole time! A lovely first win for the new Blackmore Racing Club! The day was overshadowed when the news filtered through about fellow West Country Point to Point jockey, Keagan Kirkby, who sadly lost his life riding at Charing. Keagan was a breath of fresh air in the weighing room and his love for the sport and horses were infectious. Come win or lose, he always had a bright smile on his face and we send all our love to his family and friends at this time.  To the National Hunt horses who have continued to run very well…including Longshanks who was running a blinder at Exeter before deciding to take a look at the chase course just before the wing of the last hurdle. Very frustrating for all involved and he has now gone up 2lb in the Handicap for his troubles. Naughty Gary!!! This season’s yard star, Gyllen, made it 3 from 3 at Sandown on the 26th January when winning by a neck in a thrilling four way finish under another cool ride by Harry Cobden. Stellar Stream put his poor run on New Year’s Day behind him and galloped all the way to the line to come 3rd at Chepstow. Stratton Oakmont headed to Wetherby and jumped very well to come 2nd by a neck. Diamatiste also showed a lot of promise coming 3rd at Exeter on Sunday in a Class 2. Other horses haven’t been so lucky, Iris Des Issards and Georgie made the long journey to Doncaster for it to be called off just after Georgie luckily won Best Turned Out. Stratton Oakmont was also declared at Bangor-on-Dee which also got abandoned. Our lovely bunch of 4 year olds are plugging on well with their work. They all went to Chipley Park the day after racing and had a school and gallop which proved to be successful. They were all due to go to Knightwick for schooling but that has already been abandoned due to the river bursting its banks.  The 4racing Club visited to see Our Dylan back in work after his holidays! He will hopefully be back on the track soon. We were very lucky to have the Racing Staff Development Program bring in the Simulator for all the staff to have a go on to tweak and help with their riding. A huge thanks to Lauren and Emma for giving up your time to come to the yard. We continue to build up data regarding all the horses with the Arioneo Equimeters which is very interesting and we are learning lots all the time. Many thanks to Nigel Kirby for the photo of Iris Des Issards and Georgie braving the elements at Doncaster. Another thank you to Brian Phipps for the photo of Gyllen and Harry Cobden.

A Very Merry December! I hope everyone had a good Christmas and a lovely New Year. We seem to always comment on the weather but it just doesn’t seem to stop raining!!! In between the heavy downpours, we have had an excellent and very enjoyable December. We all had a lovely evening at The Firehouse for our Christmas Party the week before Christmas. It was full of games and Secret Santa and the team all had a lovely night! All the 3 year olds went for an away day at Larkhill before their two week holiday which was very satisfying to see them gallop well.  Diamatiste went for his second run at Chaddesley Corbett on the 3rd December. He finished a pleasing 4th behind Just A Rose, who went on to be sold for £175,000 at the Tattersalls Cheltenham Sales. We went to Wadebridge on the 10th December with a strong team. Bang On Target made her seasonal debut finishing 2nd in the Intermediate. Hearts Corner was back to form and won the Restricted very well for loyal owner Becky Kealey both under Josh. Bud Succes ran in horrific conditions at Larkhill on New Years Eve to finish 5th.  Stellar Stream ran a brilliant race when staying on well for 2nd at Lingfield on the 11th December. He galloped strongly through the line and was only beaten 1 1⁄4 lengths. A couple days later, Iris Des Issards headed to Exeter. Georgie had an unfortunate blow out on the A30 on route to the races but we were very lucky that Polly Gundry was not far behind and got Iris to the races for us. Georgie had to miss Exeter and spent the afternoon with the AA while Josh made a rapid exit from the yard to get to Exeter to sort out Iris and lead up. Luckily it all paid off and he ran brilliantly to finish 2nd by 2L. Stratton Oakmont headed to Doncaster on the 15th December. This was his first reappearance since winning at Southwell. Oak ran another consistent race to come 2nd and give the Kayley Woollacott Racing Club another fun day out! Ben Godfrey took the rides on all these occasions.  Yard superstar, Gyllen, headed back to Taunton to try and defy a 13lb rise in the weights and a huge step up in trip. This time, partnered by Harry Cobden, he ran superbly and won easily by 1 1/2  lengths. This was a very impressive performance from both horse and jockey. Harry gave him an ice cool ride to make sure he saw the trip out only 14 days after his first win. The handicapper has not been very fair to him and he has had another 7lb rise. Hopefully we will see him out again towards the end of the month. A massive well done to owners Tom and Sally Dalley of Stables Business Park Ltd. The New Year didn’t quite start with the bang we were hoping for. We headed to Exeter with 4 horses that we thought would all run well. Longshanks went back under rules and ran a pleasing race to finish 3rd over hurdles. Diamatiste also made his debut under rules for us. There will be plenty of improvement from him and he will learn well on the job, he finished 4th in the Novice Hurdle. Unfortunately Iris Des Issards was too bad to be true and pulled up and Stellar Stream never seemed to be going from flag fall. A mixed bag of results but they are all home safe and sound and will go again when they are ready!

Stratton Oakmont and Gyllen Deliver! Another couple weeks have gone by and the weather has continued to play games with us! Great Trethew Point to Point did a splendid job with their ground on the 19th November which surprisingly rode a lot better than most thought it would. The ground cut up as you would expect in the dip where it became quite dead and tacky. There was a pretty ferocious wind that did not ease off at any point so this saw the rest of the ground being good to soft.  Liwah made a pleasing yard debut for owners John and Sonia Gardener. She came 4th in the Maiden, which was divided on the day. She summered very well and even with an away day to Larkhill to gallop, we know she will improve a lot for this run. Longshanks flew the flag for us at Great Trethew with yet another impressive win in the Conditions Race under Callum Pritchard. Callum led from 3 out and Longshanks looked to enjoy every second coming up the hill in front by 9 lengths for owner Richard House.  Stratton Oakmont reappeared at Southwell on the 28th November under Ben Godfrey. The ground went heavy so unfortunately they lost several runners at the meeting. Oak’s jumping is far from perfect but it is something we are working on and it is nice to see the improvement with him winning for the first time under rules. The Kayley Woollacott Racing Club have been very patient so we are delighted to finally get them a winner! He got his head in front twice last season in Point to Points and this has really helped his confidence. Gyllen, on his second appearance for Blackmore Farm, absolutely bolted up at Taunton on Thursday 30th November under Rex Dingle. Gyllen has been nothing but a bundle of joy to have on the yard since arriving with us back in September and is one who has thrived off our training regime. He is extremely enthusiastic with his work and there isn’t a day that goes by that he’s not squealing with excitement at the bottom of the gallops. Georgie did a splendid job turning him out so beautifully and rightly so, won Best Turned Out. Work Rider, Grace Lay, who is new to us, has taken a massive shine to Gyllen, so it was wonderful for her to come and lead him up at Taunton and thoroughly enjoy her day! A big thank you to Gyllen’s owners, Stables Business Park Ltd, who have been very patient with Gyllen and deserve this winner! Josh has spent the last couple of weeks moving our Schooling Fences up to the top of the farm. We have 6 fences around the outside of the field. This is brilliant for all our youngsters to get used to jumping more than 2 or 3 fences in a line and then pulling up. They can jump 6, trot back to the beginning, go again and before you know it, they have nearly jumped the same amount of fences they would have in a 2m4f race! Most of the 3 year olds have been up and had a jump over them, which has been very pleasing! They will now have a busy December before having a couple weeks off over the Christmas period in preparation for some hard work in the New Year to hopefully get them to the track in the Spring.