Introduction
Firstly, I hope everyone was able to have a wonderful Christmas and a wild new years’ celebration. With regards to the yard it has been a tough fortnight, as is the norm over this Christmas period, made worse by the bug that has swept through myself and the staff but has now thankfully passed. The staff Christmas party was a success and a great evening was had by all in the Indian and zinc. Runners have been plentiful and we have just received arrival of our new exerciser.
Round Up of runners
There was a whole bunch of horses making their return to the track after long absences including: Jupiter, Ramblow, Sigrid Nansen, Shinghari, Geni Johnson, Tsundoku and Diligent. It is great to have them all back in the yard and I look forward to bringing them on for the season ahead.
Diamond Reflection ran a great race at Wolverhampton to finish a very hard done third. He travelled sweetly in the second row the whole way, but the horse in front was tiring, resulting in him being trapped around the final bend and so had to watch others go whilst he was unable to get out. That said he came home safe and maybe next time with a kinder route through will bring home the goods.
Cry Wolf was switched back to 2 miles and it looked as if it would be winner number 4 coming home, but he just didn’t quite have the toe of the others and was held to 4th place. He finishes the season as the yards leading flat horse with just over £24,000 in prizemoney and has been a fantastic addition.
Swift Crusador was trying to make it 2/2 at Newbury, but ultimately the quick ground proved to be too much. He jumped off well but soon after the quick ground took its effect. He still finished 3rd in a good race and with a bit of luck some illusive rain may just give him the edge over the field again.
Thahab Ifraj and Minella Voucher were both placed at Taunton on the 30th, both running pleasing races. Thahab acts best on a slightly quicker surface and in parts the track just worked against him. I was delighted with his attitude to stay on at the end with him finishing well and this bodes well for some further improvement. Minella Voucher also stayed on well at the end, he is a lovely moving animal and a solid chasing career is very attainable off his current performances.
Polo the Mumm was unable to follow up upon his Wincanton success but sill jumped well. His jumping is eye-catching, though at Fakenham it is very hard to overtake making the jumping more critical than ever to progress. He has improved so much over the last couple of months and so hopefully we can continue this.
2018 Flat Review
Earnings - £117,010
Wins – 15
Top 4 finishes – 60/197 (30.46%)
With the New Year it brings the curtains down on a recorded breaking flat season for Alex Dunn Racing. 2018 was our first weighted assault of the flat scene and the amount we learnt really began to show as the year progressed. We finished 137th in the trainers standings in our real debut season with 15 wins and £117,010 in prizemoney.
With the addition of the 50 new stables I hope to break into the top 100 trainers for 2019 whilst at the same time maintaining our presence in the jumps sphere. Rossa Ryan has been a jockey we have been delighted to link up with this year, giving some superb rides to our horses, Gang Warfare at Chepstow has to be the pick of the bunch.
Cry Wolf, De Little Engine and French Mix all won 3 a piece, with Diamond Reflection being our cheapest winner when brought for £600. With our impressive form on the All Weather, the erection of a night racing facility at Southwell is hugely exciting for us and something to look forward to in February.
News in Racing
It was the boys who triumphed at Olympia in the annual jockey challenge, this time though being the boys Vs the girls. This was not without incident with a major tack malfunction for Harry Skelton leading to some entertaining scenes. This provided for great entertainment for us and terrific support for the IJF.
Most recently John my younger brother, received brilliant support from Oaksey house over the autumn and could not speak highly enough of them. The IJF is full of wonderful people and any help to keep this organisation going cannot be wasted.
Statistical Summary
Jumps 18/19
Earnings - £72,776
Wins - 7
Top 4 finishes – 38/103 (36.89%)
Flat 19
Earnings - £300
Wins – 0
Top 4 finishes – 0/1 (0%)
Total 2019
Earnings - £728
Wins - 0
Top 4 finishes – 0/2 (0%)
Swift Crusader at Newbury