Everyone say Aaah
Feb 16th, 2009 by Bert
I went on a bit of a tour last week and I got a selection of photos through yesterday, so here we go. First up - Baldovina’s foal by Dutch Art, only 2 days old;
Described as very nice for a first foal. Second up we have my 2yo Rock of Gibraltar / Duchy of Cornwall filly in training with Brian Meehan;
She’s just got better and better as time has gone on. Third we have one of my Japanese purchases recently arrived at Watership Down - Deep Impact / Muncie ;
… and finally another Japanese purchase - this time Kurofune / Histoire ;
She’ll probably be completely white in years to come - as far as I know she’s the first of Kurofune’s progeny to leave Japan. He’s a dirt stallion and she might end up looking pretty butch.
I had a good if rather busy weekend - it’ll be a busy week as half-term is on us. Jane and I went up to town last night for a 40th of one of the foundation team at Betfair - I love meeting up with the old guys as I feel such a strong bond with them, but it was also quite thought provoking.
Most of the original BF team have moved on now. Ed Wray is now Chairman, Mark Davies is still there and I’m still on the board and going in from time to time - I have three BF days this coming week but it’s normally much less than that. The other four members of the foundation team (such as it was) have moved on, but I’m in regular touch with all of them.
Two of them work full time for charities. One isn’t working at all at the moment. John, who had his 40th on Saturday, tried working in a couple of startups after Betfair, but after a fair bit of soul searching he recently decided to become a maths teacher. I had a chat with him about it.
He said that Betfair had been an amazing experience, but it had ruined him for anything else in business. Other ventures had been disappointing by comparison and just weren’t satisfying, so he had moved on to the next stage in life - giving it back.
He was very happy and very positive, just as he was during all the years I worked with him. The early years of Betfair were tough and very stressful, but it was exhilirating and also great fun at times.
9 Responses to “Everyone say Aaah”
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I’d love to know how one appraises a two-day old foal sufficiently well to label it ‘very nice’ - it looks more like Bambi to me at the moment! The Rock of Gibraltar filly looks incredibly well however, and will be one I keep an eye out for.
Have you had any thoughts as regard to names, Bert, or been given any clue as to when and where their futures lie (obviously predicting Bambi’s rise to stardom is a little more difficult)?
Great photographs!
Re the BF people “moving on”, some working full time for charities. Maybe they will be joined soon by some of the whiz-kid financial sector, bankers et al?
When in the late 1950s, whilst working for a credit office in Wandsworth Road (the late Albert Cook and Son) one of our settlers got fed up with the whole money-making-grabbing scene that he went to work at one of the Cheshire Homes in Kent for a whole year. Just got his board and lodgings and a lot of REAL satisfaction in doing something he thought worthwhile, compared to the betting world. Many thousands of “successful” people stand back after a while and ask themselves why they are slogging it out in the world of money and not doing something useful with their limited time on this planet. The older one gets … hmm.
Loved the photos Bert
Bert,
My two year old I have an interest in with Tom is progressing well, doing two canters a day. How is yours going with Tom. Also when will we see Marine Boy again?
Jon
Equipedia,
I don’t know much about foals but they’re certainly not polite just for the sake of it - my other foal at Duke’s stud was described to me as rather small and disappointing. I have a lot of horses to name this year - 5 fillies and one colt and also a new colt for the Comic Strip Heroes. I think I’ll call my colt Bodkin Van Horn - the fillies I’m just starting to think about now.
Philip,
I know a fair few bankers and they are mostly good people - I think that culturally banking is very money centric though and ugly in some places.
Jon,
both my 2yos fillies with Tom are fine, although one of them is out of work recovering from a bump on the head. It’s a bit early to know what to expect from them. Marine Boy is great and will hopefully be out fairly early. I’m also very excited about Max One Two Three who virtually missed last year but has really progressed and could be ready for a big year in ‘09.
An extremely disappointing run from King’s Head at Kempton tonight, even allowing for the fact that he’s prone to thinking about things too much. Did his latest run take a little too much out of him, Bert, or was he still showing up fairly well at home?
In the past KH has run badly when he has come out quickly and it was a concern before the race. I thought he’d be fine as he won his last race so easily, but it doesn’t seem to take much these days to put him off.
Bert,
Watched Latin America win on Sunday looks as though he has gone the right way judging by performance with Toulamain. Not sure what you thought but looked like a good field.
By the way the pictures are superb, the white fillee looks as if she will make a jumper in time if does not make the grade on the flat.
Glad the website is up and running again!