01/03/2007
Author : Candice Robinson
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It’s been a while since I’ve put pen to paper, but the last month has been go, go, go and things have been hectic. The Met has come and gone and what a fantastic day it was, a dream come true for our stable and for Marsh Shirtliff and Arthur and Rina Webber winning the double (Queen’s Plate and Met with Pocket Power and Marsh the Guineas and Derby with jay Peg too – awesome!). The cherry on the top was winning the Group 1 Fancourt Majorca stakes with the champion filly, Sun Classique, who bagged two group 1 wins this season and a 2nd in the Group 1 Paddock stakes. We are still living the moments of the day and will do so for a long time to come.
All credit to my father on a superb training feat and in my eyes, He is one of the best conditioners in the world. I have grown up with horses and ridden all my life and consider myself as having a very good understanding of horses. My father is a true horseman, knowing just how much each individual horse needs, to be at his best on the day and believe me it is an art because there is a very fine line between too little work and taking them over the top.
Each horse has different needs and they all need different amounts and types of work to get the best out of them. He is never very hard on his young horses and they are always given the time they need to show when they are ready and therefore most train on and peak as four and five year olds.
We also have a fantastic team at home, with assistant trainers Trevor Taylor and Danny Cobbold who spend most of their time out in the yard taking care of the horses and staff and they are both worth their weight in gold. We have a wonderful team of grooms and of course let’s not forget Mark runs a fantastic website, which takes a lot of very hard work and thanks to Tammi, who spends her days in the office running the operation. Our 2 farriers Greg Dabbs and Raymond Heneke. Our workriders, Belinda Haytread who is a big assest to our yard and always has valuable feedback to offer and also to Fareed Anthony who has helped us out a lot this season. Our veterinarians, Drs Baker and Mcveigh practice and Dr Vere Allin and last but not least Mom, definitely “the power behind the throne.” At the end of the day it’s a team effort. Well done guys!!!
We then went on to end the season with a win from Zooming Zellie in the Grade 3 Prix Du Cap, which closed the season for us with 4 Grade 1 wins, 2 Grade 2’s, 3 Grade 3’s and a number of graded race placings, a season that will be remembered for a long time to come.
Sun Classique had plans to go off to the UK to pursue her career, but due to some traveling hiccups might be staying for the Natal season, but things will be confirmed later in the week. Either way, it will be exciting for us. It would be nice to see her compete abroad, but at the same time we will miss her terribly, so we would be more than thrilled to take her to Natal and perhaps have a crack at the July.
We will be taking about 20 horses to Natal again this year and will probably be leaving in April. Robert Fayd’herbe will be joining us in Durban again this year after his Dubai campaign and then will hopefully be joining us on a full time basis.
Our yard is full at the moment and we are waiting for our 20 boxes to be completed, which will hopefully be in the next few weeks. Our juveniles are starting to come out and race now and we will have our first four colts running on Saturday over 1000m all in the same race. This is one of my favourite times of the year when the juveniles start racing. We seem to have a very nice crop of 2 year olds this year and I look forward to their progress.
My horses have been having a nice break during the season as I have not really had time to ride them often enough, but have started the last 3 weeks.
Gold Rush went to his first dressage show at Stellenbosch on Sunday and we got a 2nd and a 3rd which I was very happy with as it has been a long while since his last show.
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Connell and I are going on holiday with a group of friends including Justin Snaith on Thursday. We will be going to Livigno in Italy for a skiing holiday for two weeks. I am really looking forward to going as I am need of a break to recharge the batteries. I just hope we have snow as there has not been a lot of snow this winter and many of the resorts only seem to have a quarter of their slopes open but the snow report looks good for the next week. I will be sure to write again with the thrills and spills (which I am sure there will be many of, this holiday).
Till next time
Bon voyage.
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