I am drafting this update on the 23rd May and by the time you read it, I am hoping that UK racing will be about to resume, or will have already done so.
I hope that you and your families have remained well, there is more to life than racing and betting, and much as it will be good to get live racing back, my greater thoughts are with those who have been ill, lost loved ones or whose businesses have struggled leaving them in a poor financial position. I am a great believer in trying to focus on the positives, but I appreciate that this will be difficult for some people right now.
Things have started to open up a bit for me in the last week. My first game of golf for a couple of months, was followed later in the week by a trip to the stables, for the first time since early March. It was great to be able to get out on the gallops and take some photos and video. I have not made it down to Neil Mulholland’s yard yet, as I did not feel that I could justify the two-and-a-half-hour drive, but Michael Attwater is only twenty minutes away and so I popped up to Epsom Downs to see Silver Imperial. There are photos and video on my Facebook page (details in the footer) if you want to take a look.
Resumption of Racing
The cross-industry Resumption of Racing Group has been doing a great job with race planning and liaison with the Government over resumption conditions. They have been very good at communicating with the industry, owners, trainers and racecourses have all been constantly updated with the very latest news. We need another week of positive data in terms of infection rates, but if we get it, it seems that we will have some racing to look forward to, and it could be a real feast with Listed and Group races scheduled every day, from about the third day of racing!
I hope you have your betting strategies honed on the Race Adviser, using Aldermist Like-Real races, and that you will be able to put them into practice with some live racing!
I am part of the committee of the Racehorse Syndicates Association, we have been engaging with the other stakeholders in the industry to try to get some benefits for syndicate owners when racing resumes. Owners have been paying for horses to be in training without racing, and the chances are that most still will not be able to go racing once racing resumes, as there will be restrictions on numbers of attendees. We are hoping that digital race cards can be issued to owners, and perhaps additional course video and photos as well, as a free mechanism for watching the race live.
The BG Racing Horses
We decided to extend our lease on Fr Humphrey for another six months (1 st May to 31st October) as he loves good ground, and there should be some good races for him when racing resumes over jumps on 1st July. After a few weeks off, he is already back in training, so he can be ready to go when racing restarts. We are hoping he will run 5 or 6 times from July through October and, as he has won two of his last three, hopefully he could be pretty successful. Most shareholders renewed, and many took extra shares, so I do not have too much of him to sell, but I still have some to get sold in the next six weeks.
We decided to send Mount Oliver back to his owner for the summer. He likes soft ground and will not get that in the summer, but we may bring him back again for the winter.
I saw our Anjaal flat filly, Silver Imperial, at the stables this week and she is going well. She will be entered for a maiden at Kempton on 2nd June. She will need racing to restart, then she will need some luck to get into the race, as the early races are likely to be oversubscribed, and then we will need to hope that there are not a bunch of future group racers in opposition. We think that she will be competitive, but we will just have to wait and see.
My Brother has also returned into training after a break at Neil Mulholland’s yard. He would have been ready to run in April, so we hope to have him back racing in July.
Our last horse, Dynamic Kate, is having a summer holiday and will be back in the Autumn.
Personal Impact
I mentioned last month that the lack of opportunity to sell shares was a big concern for me as I had so much unsold shareholding. I have been spending lots of time in online in networking meetings over the last few weeks, and I have been hitting social media hard, which seems to have generated some results. I have certainly sold more shares that I was expecting and, fingers-crossed, my work now will pay-off in the longer-term, as far more people are now aware of what I do, and how I operate.
Hopefully, when I write the next of these blogs, racing will be back underway, and we will be looking forward to the Derby. Maybe, just maybe, I will be able to report on a good debut for Silver Imperial as well! If you cannot wait until then, the there is a weekly news update on my website: www.bgracingsyndicates.co.uk I also post on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bgracingsyndicates/
If you have any specific questions about racehorse ownership, I would be happy to respond to them, just drop me a note via my website contact page.
