Welcome back after a busy summer, not so much on the track, but certainly off it. We’ve got plenty to catch up on, so let’s dig straight in.
In the News
As you will have noticed by now, our website has been completely redesigned. It’s taken a while to get just what we wanted, but Anthony and the team at Cheltenham Media have done a fabulous job and we’re very pleased with the end result. Do have a look around the site and tell us what you think!
But it’s not just on the web where we’ve been making improvements, we’ve done a shed load of work around Bobble Barn Farm too. We’ve got a brand new 25 stable American Barn, improved and extended the gallops and much more. You’re all very welcome to join us on Countryside Day of the November Meeting at Cheltenham (Friday the 16th) to come and have a look and maybe a bacon bap.
Highway Storm, retired after suffering a career-ending injury last year, has left the yard. He’s a lovely gentle giant of a horse, who had a long road back from injury and we’re delighted to see him go to a lovely forever home.
We had plenty of trouble with the weather, first with the extreme heat over the summer and not having any water! As you can imagine that’s an absolute nightmare for any trainer, but thankfully after a lot of phone calls and some helpful neighbours, we managed to get sorted in the end. Now, we’re doing rain dances all over the place in the hope that we can get some ease in the going. The dry summer has really taken it’s toll on a lot of places and we could really do with some ease to get horses out there.
Previous Runners
We’ve got quite a few runners to catch up on. Starting back in May when Extra Bald couldn’t follow up a decent debut when finishing last of eleven at Southwell. He came back from that with sore shins, so has had some time off. Once the ground gets a bit softer, we’ll look at getting him over hurdles. His sire Linda’s Lad had a nice winner yesterday when Ecu de la Noverie won at Newbury.
Things went better for Ramonex who bounced back from his Sandown disappointment by finishing second at Perth. despite having a bit of a wobble around the bend after four out. He stayed on strongly to snatch back second though to suggest he could feature over even longer trips than this two-mile four.
The busiest horse over the summer was Eureu du Boulay. The four-year-old ran four races, but the pick of his performances was a length and a half second to Not Now Seamus in a handicap at Uttoxeter. The two were a long way clear of the rest, but despite Eureu running his heart out, he couldn’t get quite back upsides the Skelton horse and had to settle for second. He’s hopefully heading over fences soon and we’re quite excited about him going chasing.
Valadom has been in action twice, finishing a well-beaten second to Dinons in a Novice Hurdle up at Perth. That one has since won at Cheltenham and the third, who was 59 lengths behind Valadom, has won two races since then. He was back over fences at Carlisle last weekend where he faded out of it late on. It was probably a combination of the extended three-mile two, combined with his enthusiastic running style and going up the stiff hill twice at Carlisle that saw to that. It was great to see him back though after missing last season through injury and he jumped as well as ever at Carlisle before tiring in the last half mile. He’s also been out doing some Cross Country at Lyneham and really enjoyed himself. But I don’t think he’s quite done racing yet.
Newcomer Filipine was very green on racecourse debut in a Southwell bumper, but she’s only three running against mainly horses a year older. She did make some late headway, but Alain Cawley earned his riding fee that day, having to roust her along a fair bit. She’s from a decent jumping family though and will hopefully do better with time.
Chic Name ran in the Grade Three Silver Trophy at Chepstow, but finished well behind eventual winner Garo de Juilley. The trip was always going to be on the sharp side for him and he didn’t have a hard time of it. It’ll hopefully put him right for a run at Cheltenham next weekend though.
Lord Du Mesnil hasn’t had much luck in his two starts over fences since joining us from France with a fall and an unseat. He’d been jumping fine both times until then, so it’s a bit of a headscratcher, but perhaps a run over hurdles to get his confidence back is in order.
Finally, Petiville was another to finally run again after an injury lay-off, but didn’t trouble the judge with his effort at Aintree, pulled up before the finish. He has since been diagnosed with a fibrillating heart, which is obviously a concern. While it’s not impossible to come back from, as Sprinter Sacre demonstrated, it will need treating and medication for the future if all goes well. We’re keeping our fingers crossed in any case!
This week’s runners
Lord Du Mesnil is entered in a maiden hurdle at Ffos Las. Hopefully we’ll get a bit of rain, but a run over hurdles will hopefully do his confidence some good.
Eureu de Boulay has a pair of entries in Novice Chases, one of them being a handicap. That one is at Hereford over two miles, but he also holds an entry at Carlisle over two mile four. We’ll see how the weather is before making a decision.
Valadom is entered in the Anne Duchess of Westminster at Bangor over three miles, a race he won in 2016. It looks plenty competitive this time around, but he’s in good shape
The big entry is for Allysson Monterg who is entered in the Ladbrokes Trophy at Newbury on the first of December. Plenty of water to pass under the bridge before then, but he deserves his place in the entries and we’ll decide on running closer to the time.
RHBloodstock
Three horses got sold at Doncaster over the summer, two of those (Giacometti Naaly and Precious Eleanor) went to Henry Daly’s for a combined total of 25,000. But the standout was Feeling Jap who went to Tom Malone for Paul Nichols to the tune of 70,000. Not quite as good as last year when we sold eventual Grade One winner Dortmund Park over in France, but a decent summer nonetheless.
We also have some horses for sale, one of those being Ramonex and a foal by Balko with a lovely pedigree. For more information on these, please get in touch with the team on info@richardhobsonracing.co.uk.
Finally
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