I have been friends with Pat since we were flapping lads about 35 years ago we lost contact when Bolton finished and that was about the time when Pat took his full licence out.
Fortunately we bumped into each other at Wimbledon when Newinn Yolo was in the first round of the Derby I was there with my son and another friend of mine Ian Ayleward I was in the middle of just purchasing a dog with Ian.
I kept in touch with Pat and told him to look out for a dog for me
One day about 3 months later out of the blue I had a phone call in Germany where I was working he had a young pup coming over was I interested we had a bit of a chat and I agreed to take it .The dog was a November dog and wouldn’t be able to run for about 2 months but that was no problem
After about 10 days Pat phoned me to say the dog was arriving on the Saturday but he had had a phone call from the Droopys Stud does he want to buy a bitch called Droopys Folly only had a couple of schooling trials but looked promising .
Pat phoned me and told about her and said she would run before the dog would I like her instead spoke to my wife Susan she said no stick with the dog I never listened so I bought the bitch.
After 3 trials we knew we had something to go into battle with but it might take a bit of time as she is more of a stayer and it would take until she was 2 before we could run her over the longer trip.
We run her in the maiden Derby at Newcastle in the heat she was impressive but her slow starting foils he running she finished unplaced in the final.
We have had niggle after niggle with her for 6 months winning a couple of races on the way last Thursday we took her to Belle Vue over 590m she won at 7/1 get in.
I also own Charity Dragon who is in the final of the Laurels who Pat sourced for me for little money and I can’t thank him enough.
Pat and Julie are two of the nicest people you could meet and the care they take in other people’s dogs is second to non I wish them luck with the dogs in 2017
Good Luck
Tony Harmes