I took the call today from Amanda at GBGB to say that Skate On had won the Dam of the British Bred litter award and that the KSS Syndicate had finished as top owners again. I can’t really say that either came as any surprise. We had pretty much worked it out.
In fact, without being in any way boastful or big headed, I think they both won with a bit to spare. We don’t know yet whether there will be any more awards on the night, though hopefully King Sheeran should be thereabout for the top British Bred award. We’ll see.
Does it really matter? Well when I see Liz on the stage, or Brendan and Simon picking up the owners awards, in the back of my mind I am thinking, ‘we’ve done a good job. With a couple of bevvys inside me, I might even give it a ‘great job’.
Liz and I have never forgotten that we came from humble beginnings in the Scottish sticks. We were flapping people who Brendan and Simon decided to give a chance and these are the sort of occasions that I can enjoy.
We are very lucky, not just with the dogs that we have, but the relationship with the people who finance it. It has been several years since I last asked Brendan to put some money in the bank, and a lot longer than that since he asked me how much was in the account.
We have had a couple of winners at Central Park since the last column. King Louis ran exceptionally well to win an open race sweepstake at Central Park, and Queen Dolly was possibly even more impressive to finish second.
Then King Azle came out and ran an absolute stormer. If I am quite honest, when he showed so much pace along the backstraight to catch the leader going into the bend, I was just pleased to see him go past. Don’t get me wrong, he has never done anything wrong. But normally when you see that much pace from a chasing dog, you think he is about to have a dig.
He is one of the happiest dogs you will ever come across and he wags his tail the whole time he is on parade. When I take him to Central Park the girls practically take him off me. They rub his belly and I think they are trying to teach him to sit and give a paw. And he is daft enough to do it.
We also had a good trial session with King Sam clocked 16.40 and Queen Jessiej did 16.35, both on .10 slow going in their trials in a month. When you think ‘Big Kev’s (Hutton) very good sprinter Ballydorgan Des won the sprint open in 16.26 (-10), I’ve got to be delighted with the pups.
Central Park lost a meeting today due to frost. If the track is frozen again tomorrow, it will change my plans for our trialists.
King Drake, King Bruno and King Sam have only had one sprint trial each this year and will hopefully have another one on Wednesday. If the session goes ahead, then they will all be given a 480 metre trial at Monmore on Saturday. If they don’t, I’ll ask if they can have sprints.
I will be taking six along altogether including King Axle and Queens JessieJ and Lilly.
Before then we have the three brothers in the Coral Winter Derby trialstakes at Hove: Sheeran, Dylan and Lennon. For just a trialstake, Sheeran’s race would make a very decent final.
The Ladbrokes and Coral tracks are brilliant at this time of the year with the Coronation Cup, Golden Jacket, Winter Derby and Monmore Puppy Cup. I’ve already made my mind up, if we get one through to the Hove final I’m going show Ian Smyth the knackered tyres on the van. I think a small five grand bonus would probably cover it!
