Bert’s Horseracing Blog

It’s been a long time since my last blog.  My house is in a mess at the moment - my computer is packed up in a box.  My study, which was supposed to be finished in February, is only nearing completion now.  Our bathroom upstairs was supposedly a two week job - they started in June and we’re still waiting.  It’s all extra stress in my life that I don’t need.

I’m fairly happy with the horses, but not a lot going on.  Theophrastus is  a great prospect for this year - he was fairly beaten last time, but he needs a longer trip and softer ground.  Mon Michel is back with Gary and is moving well - he will come out reasonably soon.  Tifernati is over his problem but will take longer.  Latin America is an interesting prospect this year - he’s probably made more physical progress than any other and could step up.  It could be a half decent NH year.

On the flat, Peintre D’Argent comes out tomorrow, and she’s moved to William Knight.  She’s very lowly rated (51) and I wasn’t comfortable about us keeping her at Manor House when we were turning away other low grade animals.  We were thinking about retiring her but I decided to stick with her after a text from Matt Williams made me see sense - she’s a late maturing type and could easily be progressive next year.  It guesswork how she’ll run tomorrow, but I don’t see why she won’t go well - she’s over a few recent problems and I’m hoping she’ll run to somewhere close to her best.

Lilac Moon was supposed to run tomorrow, but she was entered in the wrong race - she’ll be out soon.  She’s well enough to win - there’s just a niggling concern that her attitude may not be what it was.

One high point is Swindon, who finally seem to be getting it together now.  I’ve spent a lot of time recently in Swindon board and strategy meetings, and they haven’t been easy.  The finances and politics of the club were extremely messy and it’s taken a lot of time and money to put things right - the CEO and chairman deserve a lot of credit for the work they’ve put in.  It’s starting to come right on the pitch - we need to get the attendances up now, which is not easy, but they’re going slowly our way. 

I’ve been to alot of award ceremonies recently - it’s that time of  year.  Yesterday I was seated between John McCririck and Eddie the shoe at the HWPA Derby day awards - Greg Wood won the main prize, which was well deserved.  Michael and Louise Owen came down last week for the ROA dinner - earlier in the week I won the award for “outstanding achievement” at the EGR awards.