A Good End to the AW and Start to The Turf 2025

A few positive things to report on over the last couple of weeks as our fab team hit the ground running for the 2025 turf season. But first we must have a quick look back at the finish up of the all weather season and most importantly Concert Boy.

At the start of the all weather campaign we tentatively had one eye on the Arc All Weather Bonus Horse Of The Year Competition for Concert Boy who runs in the colours of Making Headway Racing. The competition relies on points collected for finishing in the first 5 placings for three races per month over a 5 month period. It has a significant financial reward for the top 20 horses and concludes at end of the season which falls on Good Friday.

Concert boy, Darragh Keenan and myself after a win at Newcastle

A test of ability and soundness, the challenge is having your horse fit and healthy enough to turnout 15 times in the time period, whilst keeping them performing at their best. Concert Boy looked a great candidate for the project as he has a great mental constitution and is a very sound and happy horse. He made a steady start picking up plenty points and then picked up his game in January and February where he got his head in front twice at Newcastle. He finished the season in 11th place on 42 points, the winner finished on 48 - a very tight competition.

Team Making Headway Racing at Newcastle after a win

A huge well done to his owners Making Headway Racing who picked him up from the horses in training sale for 7.5k last February, he has won over 50k in the time since between his race day prize money and his Bonus winnings.

Concert Boy is having a well earned couple of months off just now with plenty of grass and sunshine, we will be trying to do the same again next year!

Just a side note on this. The AW Bonus Scheme has just concluded its third year and our small yard has now placed 3 different horses in to the top 20 - Concert Boy, Nellie French and Rockley Point. I know its not always the done thing to blow your own trumpet but this is a huge achievement by all the team here and I do not think we should underestimate it. To continually keep these horses both physically and mentally fit is no mean feat. Well done everyone who has contributed. It is a great incentive for a small yard like ours that is looking to boost both earnings and our profile.

Our first winner of the turf season came in the way of the ultra consistent and game Sacred Falls who had a good run under her belt for third on her comeback run but showed improved form with a smoother passage round Catterick to win in the hands of Jason Hart. Another shrewd buy in the yard she was picked up at the 2023 Feb HIT sale by Star Racing who seen potential in this unraced Godolphin filly. She just needed a bit of time and TLC and now looks better than ever, patience well and truly rewarded. She is so versatile track wise and has won on a variety of ground conditions. A very special horse that is a pleasure to train. We can’t wait to get her back out on a racecourse soon.

Sacred Falls and Jason Winning at Catterick

Hot on the heels of Sacred Falls, Luna A Inbhir Nis is another filly who has impressed us at the start of this season. She joined us last year for Summerstorm Bloodstock who picked her up at the foal sales for peanuts and she now looks an incredibly smart buy, she was backed locally before coming to us for her training. She always looked to have a level of ability but her first couple of runs were on unsuitable ground, she is a huge stamp of a filly and had some time before her third run where she won a match race at Newcastle. However, this week she has really come in to her own notching up a quick fire Scottish double at Ayr and Musselburgh. Jason Hart was first up on her at Ayr and really brought out the best in this filly then Sam James took the reins for her follow up run at Musselburgh where she again won in style, this time under a penalty. She is now an impressive 3 wins from 6 runs. We await her new handicap mark before making plans for this exciting filly.

Luna and Sam Winning at Musselburgh

Another positive was Tarlac who posted a career best to finish 2nd at Hamilton yesterday, he didn’t really travel down the hill but really found his feet on the rising ground. He will hopefully be winning soon for his super enthusiastic team of owners, of whom plenty were there to cheer him on last night.

Tarlac’s URSA Major Racing owners at Hamilton

Its not all roses and there have been a few below par runs this couple weeks to, a couple of bad draws, one naughty in the stalls, one ran too free, one not loving the ground but they are all home safe and sound. A lot of ups and downs in this game, sometimes its just as mentally exhausting as it is physically.

We have plenty of horses in good form at the moment but a few of them are looking for a bit of rain, things are really drying up at the moment and there doesn’t seem to be much forecast in the near future.

This is a particularly quiet week, there is not much racing in the north and most of ours ran last week so there will be plenty of jobs at home to be done!