To Sydney, you go to Bondi Beach….

A rite of passage. Iconic. Sydney’s beating heart…

I vividly recall as if it were yesterday two very happy days there a long long time ago…

Hard to comprehend the horrors of yesterday – but the actions of the depraved few must never cloud the bigger picture. When news like this comes crunching into our lives, it is hard to focus on the irrelevant and inconsequential. But focus we must – because if we allow terror to seep insidiously into our lives, they have won…

And so to our sport and our horses…

Nesthorn, Gordon Grey, Desert Cop and Max Mayhem have all landed safely in The Kingdom. Where it is about to rain. Which was not in many scripts. Entries made this morning for Thursday and Friday evening. Decisions to be made – as ever…

Juggling jockeys and options. Harder than here where we have the option of Entries and Declarations tracking. Which can guide decisions, and are a massive help. In Bahrain, we only get sight of the entries as they are published and not before…

We will wait and see who is playing their cards in which way…

The third Ashes Test starts tomorrow morning in Adelaide. High temperatures – hard work. A phoenix rising from the ashes – or more dust…..??

In other sporting news, Barney, Tallulah and I headed to Farnham Town v Tiverton on Saturday afternoon. Glamour fixture, a hometown demolition of the struggling Devon visitors, 5-0…

Love sport. Almost any sport. The greatest release and refuge…

On the cusp of another winter campaign, I have a bubbling mix of frayed emotions….

Trepidation, hope, ambition, excitement – aligned with a tinge of melancholy as I reflect on what has happened over the past five winters, and the equine warriors who have been our hoofbeats in the sand…

A Kingdom for a horse. The Kingdom of Bahrain…

An adventure that began one morning when I answered a call from an unknown foreign number. I know exactly where I was standing when I heard the words, “This is the office of Shaikh Saman Bin Al Khalifa in Bahrain…..”

And so our desert odyssey grew wings. La Maquina and Dawaam our pioneers. Solid handicappers. Our test pilots. La Maquina, a dude of a horse who won plenty at home, and came within a nose of being our first Bahraini winner. That photo finish still confounds…

And then the brave hero that was Lucander wandered onto the yard. Bought by Paul Bowden and Nigel Jones. Privately with the help of Tom Malone. Cool horse for sure – but his recent form gave little indication that he was about to become our “Desert Storm”. I can absolutely see slap bang in my mind’s eye the way he travelled through those twilight races, filling the emotions with hope and then utter joy…

I can still see as if it were yesterday the look in his eyes as he gazed over his domain for one final time on that miserable February evening. The eye was bright but the body was gone. I miss him still….

The baton passed to Desert Cop, Gordon Grey, Max Mayhem and Nesthorn….

The next few weeks will not define any of their careers. But it will be part of their story. It will be part of our story…

Where others have shied away from venturing afar, preferring instead the comfort of home Programme Books, we have danced several dances across gilded foreign fields…

#HaveHorseWillTravel….

There have been fabulous and fantastic and defining moments around the globe. From high Swiss mountains to glory beneath Turkish minarets. The near 600 winners have been studded with red letter foreign days with Bahrain to the fore in recent times…

Get It did pretty well over there – and perhaps the winter sun has played a key role in Stewards and Wokingham fun. He won’t be there this year, which is sad for all involved….

On we go. Thinking of the good days and the old friends like Lucander does mist the eyes and I’m not ashamed to write it. Tough game – and the emotions are torn hither and thither on occasion. And in the long dark hours, the worries and the memories and the disruptive fear play muddled games with the mind…

But what a privilege to be sending some fabulous horses and people to race and battle and fight on our behalf. I owe the horse so much. I don’t have the words to explain how they and the people around them have defined my life, and my love for both runs very deep….

May they all travel well and safely, and may tough disruption and worry give us a “bye” this time…

Go well team….

https://bahrainturfclub.com/racecard/2023-02-17/8/results#race-replay-1

On Social Media for Under 16’s in Australia…

A further ban is being contemplated. A ban on cricket being played on those shores for the next month. Sign the petition, guys and girls….

Another “Weather Warning for Chesapeake Bay” has slid into my inbox. I’m intrigued. They get a lot of weather there for sure – but not quite sure why I have been chosen to pick up these stormy messages. I will have to go and inspect the Bay one day….

Final tweaks and touches and bags packed and trunks loaded. The “Bahrain Four” on the cusp of headed east to the desert. They fly out of Stansted on Saturday morning where they will be greeted by the A Team of Sophie and Harriet…

I have seen the list of some of our opposition, and the Bahrain Turf Series is becoming more competitive year on year. Which is the way of it, and a good way for all involved…

My horses will watch the movie “Seabiscuit” on the way over as well as videos of their finest hours on the racecourse. Or they won’t…

Lord Allen’s first public speech as BHA Chair on Tuesday evening at York’s Gimcrack dinner. Not exactly revelatory or wildly exciting. If you can be bothered, you can listen to it in full on yesterday’s Nick Luck podcast…

Maybe Lord A was being very sensible in not going in too hard and “fire and brimstone….”

We shall see. We certainly need strong and considered governance….

Also on Nick’s excellent podcast, Dave Yates (Newsboy of the Daily Mirror) implied that because York have announced a prize money increase, following on from Ascot, that all is a lot better in that theatre that is often stated. Nope Dave – a boost to flagship races does nothing more than paper over cracks…

Desert Cop winning The Grade 1 Chairman’s Cup in March…

https://bahrainturfclub.com/racecard/2025-03-07/6/results#race-replay-1

Pounding the roads shortly after 5 O’Clock yesterday morning….

Storm Bran was raging away. Trees bending double and heavy rain in the face….

“Shortly after 5 O’Clock……”??!!

Thinly veiled “look at me, up and about and running the country lanes before you have even thought of stirring from your slumber….”

In fact, not even “thinly veiled”. Blatant showing off…

At a recent dinner with a great friend Rupert Bevan (racing folk will remember his wonderful father Hugo), we agreed that, on or around the 1st March 2026, we would race each other over 5 kilometres. I’m a bad loser. Rupert is competitive. In a previous time, I regularly ran Marathons, but those days are very “previous” and a long time ago…

Not easy. But we both agreed that once you hit 60, you go one way or the other in terms of fitness…

One way is a lot better than the other…

I imagine a scene similar to Anthony Andrews and Ben Cross pounding around the Cloisters in Chariots Of Fire. The reality will be more like Smarty and Red Marauder in that mud spattered deep ground Grand National of 2001….

Storm Bran ??? I thought that we had dived a lot further into the alphabet than B….??

The storm precluding an intended gallop at Kempton Park – riders and horses might well have been blown across The Thames to Sandown…

London yesterday evening. Dinner with Barney and Tallulah before heading to the footballing Mecca that is Loftus Road. QPR 1-0 up until conceding an equaliser deep into the 3rd minute of 6 minutes of added time. But then a wonder strike in the dying seconds sending the old place into raptures. Loftus Road rocked…

Late home. But hey ho….

Candles and both ends. But we are all a very long time dead, so seizing the moment and regretting little and positivity has to be the way. Not always easy when the bumps in the road appear, but keep bloody kicking…

In other exciting news, the first morning with no speed restrictions at the A3 / M25 Junction. What fun we all have…

Calmer out there this morning. Time to gallop a horse or three…

Inexorably….

Nudging their way to a remarkable 3-2 Ashes series victory. 2-0 down after being out batted and out bowled and out caught. And comprehensively out thought…

We have those Aussies just exactly where we want them…

2-2 by the time The Ashes swing into Sydney for a dramatic denouement….

Ashes dreaming…

The reality is that 5-0 has to be favourite right now…

In our sport, Il Etait Temps throwing down a massive Champion Chase marker with his Tingle Creek demolition. For a stride or three, it looked as if the cheekpieces had worked the oracle on Jonbon, but then Willie’s machine came strolling by…

Compensation for Nicky Henderson with the impressive Lalumba, and up at Aintree Twig and Mr Vango having a mighty battle past The Elbow and to the winning line…

The National Hunt season in full swing and several Cheltenham markets are taking shape. But plenty of the star turns yet to leave their stables and anybody playing antepost is playing with fire..

At home with us, the last few days of preparation ahead of the Bahrain flight on Saturday…

Sophie and Harriet headed over to The Kingdom on Friday to secure several drop zones, and to await the arrival of Desert Cop, Max Mayhem, Gordon Grey and Nesthorn. Some with options at the first Turf Series fixture on 19th December, depending on how they take the flight east…

More and more competitive year on year in The Kingdom. Which is how it should be…

Beginning to feel like a better option than Test Match Special when I wake up…

Turning my radio on in West Sussex seems to coincide with either a collapse of English wickets or a frenzy of Australian runs. Better to listen to reports of high gales on high seas. Less stressful – but I guess not for those challenged by those high seas. For those in peril…

Yesterday – and a masterclass from Joe Rooooooooot…….

There was never really a monkey on his back – but the whole of Australia had created a Giant Ape and stuck it firmly onto Joe’s shoulders. A deft touch down to Long Leg, and the monkey was back in Brisbane Zoo…

Waking this morning to “English heads are down”…..

Travis Head dropped on 3. Pivotal ? Series defining ? “Jamie Smith, how does it feel to have dropped The Ashes….?”

Sport is brilliant and life defining and huge fun and utterly exhausting. And agony…

The “agonies” of our sport proved too much for a talented young trainer in Alice Haynes. Whose rise has been pretty meteoric, but who is walking away from the job she adores. Citing the financial
pressures and iniquities of a flawed funding model, and the crippling rise in the cost of everything…

Those of us charged with providing feed and water and love and welfare to animals have no option other than to ride with the increased costs of everything. Hard to pass everything onto owners whose horses are often running around for those chocolate cakes and rosettes…

When the going gets tough I guess….

Alice is not the first to make the hardest call, and she won’t be the last. But every single business in the land is operating in a tough economic theatre – well, not “every single”, but certainly plenty…

We will keep bloody kicking, and find the horses that will define. And which will take us to all the right places in the years ahead…

Talking of which, the Bahrain bus is revving up its engine…

A week tomorrow, this season’s “Bahrain Four” will be wheels up and headed East….

STOP PRESS – Head out….

I left the England team to it for the first few overs this morning….

Two wickets in the first five minutes would not have been good for the heart, the mind or the soul…

A rally of sorts going on right now. Of sorts. Knife edges. Good for the heart….??

The Racing Post filled with Cheltenham news and ante post prices. Like Christmas, Cheltenham seems to rush around quicker and quicker each year. Not long before I’m pulling up at Heathrow to greet “Man What’s Happening ?” Sean Clancy….

In fabulous news from the other side of that big pond, Clancy’s Riverdee Stable crowned as Champion National Hunt owner. A wonderful achievement by my great mate…

Jump racing in America carries decent purses and enthusiastic crowds. Massive tailgate parties. Several folk who won’t see a horse but will see a lot of the inside of a beer glass. In Nashville one year, there was a huge pickup truck with a hot tub on the back. Pumping music and plenty of dancing…

Wandering into the in-field with an English accent always ensured plenty of chat – plenty to drink and plenty of laughter and a game of “corn hole”. And a lot of, “Mary Lou, come over here, listen to these guys talk, can you say that again…..”

“Hi, I’m George, and I’m from England….”

“Oh My God, your accent is so cute….”

Top work Clancy and Annie. Whose stable has improved in quality and quantity over the years that I have known him…

There is more. But no time right now. A windscreen to fix in Croydon. Why Croydon – not sure…??!!

But luckily en route to Epsom. Almost. Raining hard. Again. Time to beat that traffic….

An email from Cornelius Lysaght yesterday….

Nothing to add. Except to marvel at the strength and the resilience of John and Amy Hunt in the face of terrible trauma….

Hello George,
I wondered whether you might be able to publicise the below on the blog.
Best wishes, Cornelius

Can I draw your attention to a special silent auction which is up and running to raise money for the Hunt Family Fund which John and Amy Hunt will then use to back causes which help and inspire young women, in memory of Carol, Hannah and Louise who lost their lives so cruelly last year.
There are some terrific items on which to bid…or alternatively there’s an option to simply donate. Either way, the Fund would be very grateful for any support. Thanks very much.

Link:
www.bidaid.com/auction/hff

There is plenty of glass. And so when it rains, there is no escaping the pitter patter of falling drops. Those drops appear to be enormous right now. Noisy, and it sounds as if a hundred squirrels are scampering across the roof…

Rain on top of rain. We are on heavy Sussex clay here at home. And when that gets wet…

Sussex for a few minutes before jumping in the car to Kempton. Galloping three of the “Bahrain Four” – Nesthorn, Desert Cop and Max Mayhem. Gordon Grey will also be on that flight to The Kingdom next week, but he had a short break after Tattersalls Sales…

Sadly, the legend that is Get It will not be headed to the sun this winter….

He got cast in his stable a fortnight ago. Which 99 times out of 100 is innocuous and of no moment. But the poor lad gave himself a proper slap and was in some distress. The finest veterinary minds struggled to find the root of the problem until a second bone scan revealed four fractured ribs. Seriously painful and seriously sore…

He is home safe to Epsom now, and time is the greatest healer…

A cliche, I know, but this fabulous warrior owes us absolutely nothing. At some point before the year is done, I will recount (again….) that gilded Ascot afternoon under blazing June skies…

The best case scenario is that we get him back to the races for one run before he defends his Wokingham crown. A wonderful trophy – and one that it will be sad to give back as it looks excellent on the dining table. Better win it again then….!!

Raining still and the pitter and the patter showing no sign of stopping. Time to brave the elements…..

Apparently. Starts today. December – how did we get this far through the year so quickly….??

Amber and Yellow Weather Warnings. Lashing rain on the A3 and the M25 just now. Blustery – actually, a lot more than “blustery”….

Constitution Hill – what to do with a problem like Constitution Hill….??

Schooling superbly well at home – but when it gets to the heat of battle, he has forgotten how to get his legs over a hurdle without catapulting him and Nico into racecourse turf. So hard to watch – imagine what it must be like for those intrinsically wound up in his life….

Too hard to watch – surely. Horse and Jockey have emerged from crashing tumbles with nothing more than a bump and a bruise, but it could have been so much worse. CH has adopted cult status and is one of those generational “People’s horse”. Desert Orchid, Red Rum, Frankel etc…

Another run over hurdles, or even fences, would be too much to bear or watch – and it would be beyond ghastly if another tumble brought with it catastrophic injury to man or beast. Why not give it a go on the flat ? After all, there was more than just a speculative entry in this year’s Ascot Gold Cup….

A weak division, relatively, by all accounts. With no stand out Stayers in the frame right now, why not ?? Redemption in High Summer on those gilded Berkshire acres….

Golden Ace picking up the pieces on Saturday. The Champion Hurdle in March was almost unbelievable. Fierce drama in the raging Festival heat. And this running of the Fighting Fifth came close to matching. The young pretender, The New Lion, crashing out – not as pivotal as State Man’s Champion Hurdle last hurdle, but close….

The cards have fallen for Golden Ace. But she is very good in her own right….

Ante Post betting for the Hurdling crown at Cheltenham in March is torn and tattered and confused…

Fascinating. And an intrigue dynamic to follow over the following weeks….