Simon Rowlands' Weekly Blog: Stable visit strengthens connection between owner and horse

General / Simon Rowlands / 29 April 2009 / 2 Comments

Simon Rowlands has crept out from behind the monitor and keyboard to actually view some horses in the flesh - and he really liked what he saw.

It can be a chastening experience for someone, like me, used to trying to define the merit and requirements of horses from afar through facts and figures, to venture out from behind the keyboard into the real world. A carefully considered rating can seem a foolish and inconsequential thing when you are faced by the stark reality of 500 kg of horseflesh with a mind of its own.

That was a message I took home from the Open Day at Jeremy Gask's stables at Sutton Veny in Wiltshire at the weekend. Fortunately for my levels of confidence in what I am doing, it was not the only message.

The Horses First set-up for which Jeremy trains got a bit of a reputation for being touchy-feely tree-huggers in the early days. That is not a bad reputation to have in some respects, but it does not do justice to the business acumen and scientific principles that underpin the whole operation.

Horses do indeed come first at Sutton Veny, rather than the trainer or the owner, but that is with the aim of achieving success. Owner Eamonn Wilmott has invested over £10m in bringing the 160 acres up to scratch. To borrow from CJ in The Fall And Rise of Reginald Perrin, he didn't get where he is today by wasting his money.

A substantial part of that investment has been in getting good staff and in providing them with a good workplace. Happy staff lead to happy horses seems to be the philosophy. By the look of it, it works.

A treadmill, a Seawalker, regular blood and lactate testing, a heart-rate monitor and a weighing machine all help the humans involved to judge when, where and how the horse in question may best be able to give something back.

As does a freshly laid all-weather gallop, up which some of the inmates went through their paces in the morning. The close proximity of a couple of hundred enthusiasts ensured that the horses will have experience of racing in front of a reasonable crowd.

Let's hope that Swine Flu does not put an end to crowds altogether: midweek racing at Kempton should be safe, at least...

The performances of horses on these facilities can have, and do have, numbers put upon them - numbers over which humans pore with an obsession which makes me deeply envious - though the only figure I can remember about King's Miracle is that she weighed 468 kg before her debut, which means that I was leasing 117 kg of her at the time.

I came away wanting to own a bit of the unnamed Bertolini-Buckle and Danehill Dancer-Labrusca two-year-olds, of the talented but fractious Catalan Bay, of the cheekily friendly Acrosstheuniverse and, well, of all of them, really. The thing, as I have discovered, is that "owning a leg" in one horse does make you feel like you have a stake in the entire yard.

All of a sudden, I feel like I have become something of an expert in inferring the hopes and intentions of those connected with a horse from where that horse is entered and where it runs. As an owner (well, okay, part-owner) I now appreciate much more what deliberations go into such matters.

King's Miracle herself has been entered in a 6f maiden at Salisbury on Sunday, along with two of her stablemates. Following a debut in which she was well held but offered promise, we would like to see her show more of what she is capable of at home. A straighter track may help her in the short term, given that she got a bit lost round the bends at Lingfield, and the Salisbury race has traditionally not been strong.

Horses First's racing manager Kevin Blake, with whom I worked at The Sportsman and at Timeform, reckons we can hope for 15 lb of improvement from race one to race two. If that proves to be so, then King's Miracle will run to a Timeform rating of 68, which would have seen her third in four of the last six runnings of the Salisbury race.

That would do nicely at this stage, though if the race looks like being unsuitable in any way then she will be held back for a later date.

* * *

While all eyes will, naturally, be on the opener at Salisbury on Sunday, there is the small matter of the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket later on that day.

I am not a great one for backing at short odds, but value can be found at all prices and I reckon the unbeaten Rainbow View should be significantly shorter than even the [2.54] on Betfair.

Lord Shanakill (now [28.0] on Betfair) remains my more speculative fancy for the 2000 Guineas the day before.

Comments (2)

1. Simon Rowlands | 29 April 2009

   The best-laid schemes o' mice an 'men, and all that.

   I have just been told that King's Miracle went a bit potty in her box the other day and banged herself, though not seriously, so is likely to miss Salisbury at the weekend. Women, eh?

   Various locations around the country have been run up the flagpole for later in May, and I am glad to say that only a few of them would involve a round trip from hell...

2. Jonjo | 01 May 2009

   Sorry to hear about the setback Simon.
   They are ALL made of glass as someone once said!

   Hope she's back on course quickly for you & she might get you a free ticket for the Juddmonte if she can book her place in that Nursery in August?