After several months of fast ground, we moved into a period of abandonments due to heavy underfoot conditions from Christmas and there is not much sign of a let up yet!
But that’s not going to stop us from backing winners.
Ironically our first runner of 2020 nearly did not race due to the underfoot conditions being too hard, as the ground at Exeter was frozen and the meeting did not go-ahead until it passed the third of three inspections!
The year has started with a bang for the two BG Racing trainers. Neil Mulholland is already well on the way to double figure winners in 2020 with Doing Fine winning on New Year’s Day, Fingerontheswitch winning a big Saturday handicap and then finishing 2nd in the Skybet Handicap Chase at Doncaster, along with wins from Last Enchantment, Runasimi River, Bootlegger, Neachells Bridge and Indian Brave. Neil is kind enough to share his thoughts on his runners with me and as a result, I have managed to back all of those winners for a healthy profit on the month and I know that many of my shareholders have also been on! Michael Attwater has also made a strong start and I have also backed two or three decent priced winners that he fancied to run well, so the betting accounts are in a healthy position. Hopefully, both trainers will keep the good form going through the year.
Fr Humphrey and Mount Oliver
You may recall that we have a “two horses for one share price” package with Neil that includes Fr Humphrey and Mount Oliver, two experienced handicap chasers. Humphrey is on target to contest the Conditional Jockeys Veteran Chase Final at Newbury in March and Olly is taking advantage of the soft ground that he enjoys!
After a promising debut at Taunton on 30th December, Olly turned out again at Exeter on 2ast January where he ran a really good race to finish 2nd. We thought he would run well and backed him each-way so it was nice to see him justify our confidence. He should still have some fitness to gain from that run, so we are hoping he will go close again next time, which we hope will be in mid-February. It is good to get more prizemoney in the bank for shareholders and it is always a brilliant day out when you have a horse in the winners’ enclosure even if it was not in front of the 1st place lollipop!
The Other Horses
Probably the best news I got in January was news that our handicap hurdler “My Brother” was given the go ahead from the vets to return to full training. He had a niggle which whilst not overly serious was always going to keep him off the track for a long period and it was brilliant to get him back into training and start to plan to see him back on the racecourse.
Our two fillies also continue to progress well. I only have a few shares left in the Anjaal filly with Michael Attwater and she should be off for a racecourse gallop in early February and then soon after that she should be ready to run. She is coming along well and jockeys that have been in to ride her have been impressed with her, so fingers crossed she has a decent level of ability. Dynamic Kate, our NH filly with Neil Mulholland is also progressing well, she is on track to make a debut in a national hunt flat race at the back end of the season.
I am looking forward to the coming months with all of our horses.
