I am writing this at a time when, any other year, I would be stood on the steps at Cheltenham watching the first meeting of the new jumps season. It is great to see the jumps season back as, if I am honest, I prefer the jumps to flat racing! Ok so it would be even better if I could see it live, but I was able to get to a jumps meeting at Fontwell earlier this week, where BG Racing had a runner. I recognise that I am one of the lucky people who has been able to see some live racing, so no complaints, and at least we can watch the action on TV.
Obviously, we are starting to see more restrictions being imposed in different parts of the country right now, which means more people will be spending more time at home. I hope the restrictions do not impact on live sport, as there will be a lot of people who will be wanting to watch sport on TV in the absence of being able to go out and do other things.
Economic Impact
We have just seen several sales of younger horses and, while it would appear that prices at the top-end have not been impacted much by the current situation, I know several people who were able to buy horses at the lower end of the market for prices well below what they were expecting. As more people are impacted financially, so racehorse ownership will decline, as this is obviously a leisure spend. There are bargains to be had, but a lot of potential owners are no longer in the market to buy, and others are put off by racing behind closed doors and the limits that this imposes. I had two runners this week, and would normally have had upwards of 20 shareholders at the races, but I could only get 4 badges for each venue. That leaves disappointed shareholders, who could feel that they are not getting the same experience as they were. I will probably reduce the number of BG race horses from four to three, or perhaps even to two, in the coming weeks and build back up as I get more interest in getting involved.
On Track This Month
It was not the best of months to report on from the racecourse!
Silver Imperial raced twice, at Lingfield and Kempton, and was poor on both occasions. We need to make some decisions about her future, as she does not look to be at a level where she can be competitive. It is such a shame as we had high hopes for her, but she simply has not shown enough ability on the course.
Fr Humphrey went to Huntingdon where I had high hopes for him; he ran a stinker and pulled up! We found some physical reasons for that, but would like to see some evidence that he will stay competitive if we extend our ownership of him. We would like him to run again in the next couple of weeks to inform our decision on his future.
Dynamic Kate made her debut in a national hunt flat race last week. The one thing we did not want was soft ground, and so rain all morning on race day was a disaster. She was really well backed for some reason, (I expressed plenty of reservations to shareholders and on social media), but she ran as we expected rather than as the market did. She did not handle the ground at all well, and we expect a lot more from her in the future.
There is more information on all the horses on my website: www.bgracingsyndicates.co.uk , where I also post a weekly update under latest news.
