It’s been a tough year and we are all still grieving the loss of Mark in the Spring, but focusing on the horses has been a great panacea. They have been rewarding us for the attention they have received with some magnificent performances! Last weekend (16th – 18th November) there were victories for both parts of the yard. The quirky Southfield Lily got her point-to-point season off to a winning start at Badbury Rings in Dorset on Saturday, and Smugglers Haven followed up her victory at Hereford last month with an impressive destruction of her rivals at Plumpton on Monday.
Southfield Lily has been difficult to handle at the start of each race because of a mixture of nerves and stubbornness and so we have been working on sweetening her up over the summer and, despite the start being delayed by the removal of a fence due to bad light, Lily (who knows her so well) kept her moving, and she started happily. She came easily away from her only rival with three fences to go to deliver an easy victory. There was an anxious moment when she lost focus when on her own over the last two fences, decided to ignore Lily’s guidance and plough through the second last fence and then take a stride out approaching the last. All’s well that ends well!
The licensed part of the yard was not to be outdone and Smugglers Haven jumped beautifully at Plumpton and quickened away from the last bend in fine style. She took a while to recover from winning a point-to-point as a four year old and is still growing and strengthening but, she has developed into a really good jumper. If we look after her, I do think that she will be even better over fences and give her owners a lot of fun on the racecourse before (hopefully) becoming a very successful brood mare. She does prefer good ground so if the weather turns wet now she will have a break and come back in the Spring.
