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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.

The Countdown Is On! Our first entries are in and we are on the final countdown to the first Point to Point of the season. Dunsmore is fairly local to us and it will be great to get back racing! We have a handful of entries made including horses from Blackmore Racing Club. With Storm Ciaran hitting the South West hard, we will take each day as it comes with the ground conditions and any possible runners. We have had more than our fair share of rain over the past couple of weeks and luckily our fields around the farm can cope with it very well which allows us to continue using them. The 3 year olds have all schooled over the fences on the grass which is brilliant. It is lovely to start seeing them progress which builds excitement for the coming few months.  Josh received his Foran Equine prizes from winning the Point to Point Trainers Title last season. We are extremely grateful for these companies to sponsor the Awards and would like to thank Foran for this. Foran Equine is part of Connolly’s Red Mills, which led us to being introduced to their feed. Charlie Ward, the Thoroughbred Specialist representative, has been extremely helpful with introducing us to the company which we have now made the decision to change feeds too for the coming season. We had Arioneo in the week before last to use their Vet Equimeter on the horses. This is a device that attaches to the girth that has patented electrodes that collects exercise ECG coupled with GPS and locomotion data. It was a very interesting morning seeing the device and how it works along with the data it can produce. We have various work routines here at Blackmore Farm, so it was very helpful to understand how hard each horse works doing different pieces of work. We are hoping to have a couple of devices to hand on the yard which will be a huge positive to look into each horse’s fitness, heart rates and recovery.  Longshanks has been very kindly gifted a big tub of Gut Balancer from Protexin Equine Premium. We hope it makes a big difference to his general wellbeing and will support his digestive functions and efficiency to get his results back on track.  It is never too late to get involved in our very exciting Racing Club. Please do not hesitate to drop us an email or message for more information on this.

Introducing the new Blackmore Racing Club! September has been and gone and before we know it, we are nearly in the middle of October. The horses are all coming along nicely and we will start to have a few National Hunt entries in the next couple of weeks. Hunter Certificates have started to be submitted for the beginning of the Point to Point season, which is just over 3 weeks away at Dunsmore, near Exeter. It is a track we have had plenty of success at in previous years. We have a couple of horses that we hope to run there, including a horse from our new club, Blackmore Racing Club. We are very excited to launch the Blackmore Racing Club. It will consist of 2 or 3 horses that will run throughout the season across the South West Area. The club is open for anyone and everyone to join for a one off fee of £395 (October – June). Club members will be invited to come to the yard to meet the team and watch the horses along with breakfast rolls from The Sausage Shed. There will be weekly updates via Email or WhatsApp and plenty of fun to be had at the races along with fabulous Car Park Picnics! Did Ja Ever, a 5 year old mare who was 3rd in an Irish Point to Point, will hopefully be our first runner. It is a great way to get involved in our sport and our yard at an affordable cost and we hope you will join us in this exciting journey! The horses work routines have increased and they are all feeling very fresh and well. On the 10th October, we were lucky to have Yogi Breisner come to Chard Equestrian (pictured below) for some schooling. We took 14 horses up there for a jump under Yogi’s watchful eye. All the horses are at different stages of their careers but it was brilliant to see things come together and they all jumped well. We have also got most of our 3 year old store purchases out on the grass jumping this week, which they took to very well. We love watching their progress and look forward to them hopefully making their racecourse debuts next Spring. Nickelsonthedime had his final run of the season on the 25th September finishing 5th. The handicapper has got a big hold on his mark so he will now enjoy a well deserved holiday.  If you would like any more information or to get involved in Blackmore Racing Club, please email us on info@kayleywoollacottracing.com

Full steam ahead for Blackmore Farm! Blackmore Farm has been a hive of activity since our last blog. The yard is now full of horses and it is great to have all the staff back after their holidays. The majority of the horses are back cantering and have started to enjoy a jump in the school. Hopefully it won’t be long before we get them schooling on the grass. A few weeks ago, we wanted it to stop raining, but after this heatwave we will be in need of some rain again!  We have had a handful of runners since our last blog. Caspers Court made his seasonal reappearance where he was slightly outclassed and would have needed the run. Our Dylan had his final run of the summer on the 1st September where he finished 3rd at Fontwell with Ben in the saddle. He will now enjoy a well deserved holiday and will come back into work in the New Year for the Spring. Dime ran another solid race at Worcester on the 12th September to finish 3rd only being beaten 2L. He has been so consistent over the summer and given his owners plenty of fun.  Sunday 3rd September saw us have our annual Owners Day. With help from the staff, family and friends, we had an extremely busy day with over 130 people attending. The yard looked immaculate, as did the horses during their parades. Everyone enjoyed a beautiful lunch which was prepared by ourselves and enjoyed watching a Season Highlights video. The next couple months will consist of getting the horses back to race fitness and then we can do the exciting part of race planning! We are looking forward to having Yogi Breisner in at the beginning of October for some jump schooling, which will hugely benefit the younger horses. We were lucky enough to have Brian Stubbs Photography at our Owners Day. Photos can be viewed here.