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Kate Walton Racing: News Page

News: May 2010

In life we experience highs and lows and racing is very much the same... last week at Sedgefield we unfortunately experienced one of the lows when we lost Still At Lunch. Unfortunate events like this are thankfully very rare but being a small yard it has hit us and his owners very hard. 'Lunchy' has been a fantastic horse who has been in the yard since he was a 3yo and he was very enthusiastic and really enjoyed jumping and racing. From 19 starts he won 5 races and was placed on several occasions giving his owners some great days out as he always tried his best. We will remember him for all the highs which he provided.

On a more positive note the horses have remained in good heart and continue to run well and have certainly been enjoying the sun over the last couple of days. We have had a number of flat horses making their debuts for us during the month acting as a good basis for them for the future. West Stand made her debut for the Elland Road Partnership at Beverley on May 3rd - after starting slowly from the stalls she ran with a great deal of promise to finish sixth. This was a great starting point for her and she learnt an awful lot from her debut. She ran again at Thirsk a couple of weeks later but the ground had really dried out and she was not comfortable on this. With Leeds United winning promotion the pressure is on to get her into the winners enclosure!

Embsay Crag returned to Chester on May 7th where he had previously been successful. As always he ran his heart out to finish 3rd only getting beaten by a couple of lengths. He got bumped entering the home straight which stopped his momentum and he did well to finish where he did. He really is an owner's dream as he always tries so hard and has an awful lot of character.

Another horse making their debut for the yard this month was Fantastic Sam for The Suffolk Punch Syndicate. Sam was in training as a 2yo but did not run due to having a growing spurt and being too weak to do herself justice therefore we gave her plenty of time to mature. She made her debut at Doncaster and although she ran very green, she seemed to have learnt a lot as the penny seemed to have dropped when we ran her at Ripon a couple of weeks later. I think the syndicate should have fun with her during the summer.

We have decided to give Unawatuna a month's break due to the firm going. She has run well in the past month finishing 3rd and 4th but she definitely appreciates some give in the ground as both her wins have come on good to soft so she will return for an autumn campaign.

At Ripon on May 25th we had three runners - Jupiter Fidius and both Bonded Spirit and Honest Buck were making their debuts for the yard. Bonded Spirit contested the 5 furlong 2yo Maiden, he jumped from the stalls and travelled well for the first part of the race only to fade in the later stages, jockey Paul Mulrennan was positive about him afterwards. Honest Buck contested the 3yo Maiden over a mile and ran a very encouraging race after breaking slowly he showed promise to pass horses up the home straight and was finishing best of all. Both will come on for making their racecourse debuts. Jupiter Fidius seemed more like himself following a disappointing run at Doncaster last time. The race did not pan out as we had hoped but he ran with a lot more enthusiasm.

On a different note we took Pen Gwen and Everaard to a local Cross Country course to school over some different jumps. It was a good break from their daily routine and they both thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Pen Gwen is a great jumper he seems to enjoy variety and I think it gave Everaard great confidence in his jumping. They would have both put some of the experienced eventers to shame. Both horses are due to run in the next week.

I would also like to congratulate Henry who is the yard's amateur as he rode his first winner under rules at Market Rasen. Henry has had success point-to-pointing but this was his first victory on a racecourse. A number of racing professionals commented about his riding and potential for the future.

I would also like to mention the Racing for Change programme and the media course which they provided for trainers in the North this month. I was one of four trainers who attended the course and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the course and thought it was excellent. I don't think I will be threatening any of the CH4 or Racing Channel presenters for their jobs but it was a good day with plenty of help offered on how to improve our interviewing techniques.

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