7th to 16th February

Fontwell - 7th Feb. Princely Hero under Roddi Green was tracking the leaders when he unfortunately took a heavy tumble at the 6th.  BRUSHFORD confirmed the promise shown on his previous run at this course.  He obviously learnt a lot last time and looked a real professional today.  I hope you were 'on' after the tip given after his win last time out!  He has always been held in high regard here and it was marvellous that he could build on his previous win to do it again. Leighton Aspell again gave him an accomplished ride.

Lingfield - 8th Feb.  Three horses ran at Lingfield and all were a little disappointing.  Attorney General travelled well early on, but weakened in the latter stages of the race.  Boroque Star's race was run at a modest pace and then he got outpaced when the tempo quickened and Days Of Pleasure ran similar to Attorney General.

13th February.  We travelled to three different courses today, all northwards but all varying distances away. The closest was Newbury where Etruscan ran.  He schools at home like a real pro, but for some reason the occasion gets to him at the races and he forgets all he has been taught and his jumping prowess goes out the window.  There is confidence in the 'camp' that he will get it right soon, so keep watching him.  King Edmund ran at Warwick under the guidance of Roddi Greene.  But for a mistake at the last he would have finished a good 2nd.  Our Fugitive went to Wolverhampton for a little romp around under our stable amateur, Craig Bevan.  On completion no one was sure who was smiling the most - Craig or the horse!!

16th Feb.  We were supposed to be at Folkstone today, but the meeting was called off this morning after a 6am inspection.  Apparently there was 2 inches of snow on the course yesterday!

Absolute Shambles went to Huntingdon - he led the race until a mistake 3 out, which knocked the stuffing out of him, he then faded and finished 10th.

Senor Shane ran at Warwick where he showed a lot of courage.  Having made a mistake at the 11th he gamely rallied, but this took its toll and he could only finish 4th today - in the prize money so not too bad!

Jades Double went a 'pearler' down the back straight at Plumpton. Thankfully all is well and he will be out again soon.

Honour's Dream travelled to Towcester - which resembled a ploughed field - although for those watching the TV, you might have noticed Clonmel in Ireland, where flippers where the order of the day! Unfortunately Colin Bolger parted company with Honour's Dream at one of the fences down the hill.  It was too merky to see if it was an RFO or UR!!  The official result gives him the benefit of the doubt!

CHRIS HAS DONE IT AGAIN - GR8

BRUSHFORD went to Fontwell today and under a masterly ride from Leighton Aspell won his race.  He jumped into the lead at the 2nd last and then thought he was on a sight seeing tour, looking around and wondering what to do next - suddenly there was a big black fence in front of him, the last, and he thought, oh yes I need to jump this!  After successfully negotiating the obstacle, he again wandered and looked about and wondered why everyone was roaring at him!  Leighton encouraged him to stride on, and eventually the penny dropped, and he lengthened his stride to win, probably somewhat cosily in the end.  This win was of particular delight to all at Morestead as Brushford has always been held in high regard, but has not shown his true ability until now.  Hopefully there weill be more to come from him in the future.  Princely Hero also ran today - he finished 9th - it didn't look to his liking for some reason - probably a little help from the handicapper wouldn't go amiss!

After a very early start and hours on the road to Higham (Colchester), Big Moment and Claire (Douglas) made the trip all worthwhile. They managed a third win on the bounce to show Chris that anything Senor Shane can do (three wins under rules), Jenny can do too! It wasn't the easiest win, with Big Moment only getting up on the line to win it by a neck after managing to be facing the wrong way when the flag went down. Despite winning, Claire's Mum was insistent that Jenny give her a bollocking for messing up the start.

Although making an inch-perfect start, Fenton (Ramsahoye)'s race on Presenting Express was rather short-lived as he parted company at the second jump (having soared over the first). Fortunately only Fenton's pride was dented and he'lll be heading for Detling next week to have another go.

After keeping everyone (and more importantly the bbq) waiting until past 4pm for the final race, Neil (Henderson) managed an equally disasterous start on Mandalay Bay in the Restricted. His efforts at playing catch up weren't quite as successful as Claire's and after very nearly parting company three times (twice right in front of the crowd), they managed to trail in a very weary 6th or 7th. The great news though was that Mandalay has recovered from breaking the bone at the back of his knee and is back to fitness. Roll on an easier race!

All going well, Jenny plans a major assault on Detling next weekend with six horses entered: Nice Pick and Top Ram (Claire Allen - 2007/8 ladies' champion) in the maiden and ladies' open respectively, Launde in the men's open, and Presenting Express (Fenton), Kjetil (Neil), and the eternal Lazarus of the yard Wain Mountain (Anthony Ward-Thomas) all aiming for either the Novices or the Conditions races.

Saturday 23rd January - Yet another plan works!

A little trip down the A303 to Wincanton paid dividends with Whatever Next finishing 3rd in the Novice Chase.  Chris had thought he was running for 4th prize money, but over pre-race drinks he was encouraged to be positive and portray some confidence to the jockey!  He obviously heeded the encouragement as 3rd place was achieved under a good ride by Colin Bolger.  Attorney General also went to Wincanton.  He finished 10th under the direction of Charlie Wallis.  The ground was very testing and he ran better than his finishing place may suggest.

The cold snap has meant that both Higham (3 January) and Barbury (9 and 10 January) have been put back a week, but even the revised dates are looking unlikely. Looking on the positive side, (and being uncharacteristically competitive) Jenny hopes that this will give the horses a fitness advantage if they manage to keep cantering them over the next fortnight when the opposition are stuck inside!

Mirroring Chris' success under rules, the final days of 2009 saw Clare Douglas and Big Moment defy his detractors by winning his second race of the season at Cottenham on 28 December. Big Moment was in the first three most of the way round before pulling ahead to again beat Petit Lord into second. Perhaps a Cottenham hat-trick is on the cards at the end of the month?

Meanwhile Fenton Ramsahoye was given an armchair ride in the novice riders' by Choo-choo (Presenting Express), leading all the way until about three out. The horse finished strongly in fifth, running on when Fenton finally ran out of energy holding onto the reigns. Afterwards he assured everyone that given another circuit he would definitely have won (entirely ignoring the risk of him having to successfully get over a further eight fences)... roll on the Detling 4-miler.

Christmas came early for the point-to-point yard this year with a repeat win for Big Moment and Clare Douglas in the Ladies Open at Cottenham on 6 December. After three months of everyone trying to avoid the short straw of having to ride out Big Moment, and a score of 2-0 to him with both Chris Chapman and Neil Henderson being unshipped, he managed to win by a comfortable 5 lengths: this time without Clare trying to put any opponents out the side of the course. Clare is planning to run Big Moment again on 28th December to show the doubters that he can win more than once in a season.

Whilst Christmas is normally a time that is eagerly anticipated by many, as you read this Fenton Ramsahoye, the owner/rider of Presenting Express will be cowering behind his sofa trying to dream up any excuse not to have to sling his leg over "Choo-Choo" for the Novice Riders' race at Cottenham on 28th December. Unfortunately for him, despite claiming to be suffering from a bout of pig flu over the past week, things are looking good for a return to Cottenham to follow up on Presenting Express' 2nd there at the opening meeting on 6 December in division 1 of the Conditional Race. There have however been rumours of Fenton writing to Father Christmas to ask him for a sharp frost for the morning of 28th December.

After Cottenham, the next outing is planned for Higham on 3 January. Anthony Ward-Thomas is going to be riding his Aintree Foxhunter's hopeful, Launde (probably fuelled by several whisky macs - the rider that is as the horse already runs on rocket fuel) and Neil Henderson's Top Ram and Mandalay Bay are both running (although only Mandalay will be handicapped by having Neil on top as Clare Allen will be riding Top Ram in the Ladies).

Of course, the cunning plans will probably be wrecked by Fenton's letter to Santa and the big-freeze will mean that we will all be off to Barbury mid-January instead.

A fresh start to the blog, which was last updated by me on 17/2/2009 and was kindly updated by one of my owners recently,  I will now attempt to catch up with some of the key points since the 17 of feb.

Days Of Pleasure dashed my chance of winning the worst trainer title by sticking his head in front on the line at fontwell with Matty Roe on board. It had been a lovely day up till then - the night before i had tried a little hedge jumping in the Audi and failed, the weight of my boys nanny Mary was to much for the car and it had to be destroyed, unfortunately the police told the wife before I had the chance, but the good thing was she said she was never going to talk to me again, but as soon as days of pleasure crossed the line you could not shut her up!

Launde won a nice race at Wincanton with Colin giving him a great ride from the front, unfortunately his owner Barry Kenardy was to ill to see his horse win and then very sadly passed away a few days latter.

Airedale lad won two at Plumpton for his owner Mark Burton which happened to be his first trip to the winners enclosure in 72 years of owning horses.Absolute Shambles won at fontwell to put a smile on his owners faces,my inlaws Patrick and Caroline Grant(which is something i have yet to achieve)since then i have sold him to my bloodstock agent Richard Venn who i couldn't recommend strongly enough for anybody looking for a horse.

After working for us for three years Petra has returned to the Czech republic to find a strong boy who will marry her and father her six children, she is very much missed.

Swordsman won on the flat in the summer with Chris Catlin on board.  It was such a relief to supply Kate Digweed with her first winner for us, Kate has been a loyal owner from day one at Morestead.

Home won at Fontwell giving our new conditional Charlie Wallis a great start to his new job, Charlie has ridden winners for Henderson and Pipe and it's great having him here and helps keeps the wife on her toes by having a young buck around (she's even buying matching bra's and knickers nowadays, but I feel relatively safe as he looks like a bull dog chewing a wasp)

Winning Show won his first run over fences at Lingfield for his new owners Mr and Mrs Alwen last week under another great ride from Colin,i do believe there is no better jockey on a novice chaser than our Col,he's presentation into a fence is second to none and gives a horse so much confidence in doing so. That's it for today as I'm tired and a little emotional, but i promise more updates soon and then i can tell you stories about chicken killing dogs and a mad new owner's that just love's abusing me!