Touches to Christmas plans take place up and down the land, thoughts turn to those who will be working whilst others are playing…
Racehorses do not understand Bank Holidays and high days. Our wonderful staff can’t just turn the lights out on Christmas Eve and wander back to their “office” a few days later. They will be here to care for their charges, and to ensure that all is well…
Busier and more frantic in those National Hunt yards where Boxing Day logistics will be taxing even the sharpest minds. Those who provide the product without whom there is no racing and no racecourses…
Plenty of our horses on their winter breaks. But the New Year will see them back under the saddle, and before we can blink it will be Cheltenham and Brocklesby and Guineas chat…
Stable staff are at the very core of our sport…
Many folk who head to Boxing Day race meetings to clear the fuddled mind will wander from paddock to bar to betting ring. And understandably they will see just another group of horses in the parade ring before every race, and their thoughts will be on picking the winner that pays for the pints…
But every single horse, and every single stable staff, at their head will carry their own tale. Of long hours whilst others are holidaying. Of dark mornings when the fingers are turned blue raw in the harshness of winter dawn. Of long journeys on cluttered roads. Of late night returns that are followed by early alarms….
Stable staff are the beating heart. Our Owners have been fantastically generous, and the Staff Christmas Fund is of record proportions. It is hugely appreciated – and richly deserved…
So when you watch your sport over the next few days, when all the chatter will be about the horses and the trainers and the jockeys, doff the hat or cap to those who really matter, and who keep this bonkers show on the road…
The beating hearts….
