We have had a busy few weeks here at Woodway and we are now gearing up for tomorrow's QEII at Ascot where Accidental Agent heads back to the scene of his greatest triumph. Fingers crossed he will handle the very soft ground following the relentless rain over the past 2 weeks. He's also had a little wind op since his run at Windsor and hopefully he can give a good account of himself and grab some of the £1,100,000 prize money on offer.
We have hit the 40 winner mark for the year (including our winner at Les Landes) thanks to Sword Beach who battled on bravely to get his head in front at York, after some solid efforts in defeat this season and he is owned by one of our best supporters Henry Ponsonby's HP Racing syndicates.
Some horses have already headed off for their Winter holiday, one of which is Graceful Magic. The Kimber Family's home-bred filly has done nothing but flourish all year and finished her season off in fine style with a gallant 2nd in the Group 3 Firth Of Clyde stakes at Ayr. She gained 3 wins and amassed just over £80,000 in prize money, which included her Plus 10 bonus and heads into next season rated 97.... not bad for the first offspring of a mare who was pulled up on her only start! She would be one of the best 2yo fillys Eve has trained so far and fingers crossed she will continue to give her Owner-Breeders a lot of fun going forward. It has also been a great season for multiple winners Bella Vita & Gin Palace. Bella started off with an opening mark of 77 which quickly soared to 98 following 4 successes and securing some coveted black-type when 2nd in a Listed race at Newmarket for her Owner-Breeders John and Heather Raw. Gin Palace who has also begun his Winter break which is very well deserved following his 3 wins this season after showing a lot of promise in runs as 2yo in the latter stages of last year. His very proud Owner-Breeder Zara Campbell-Harris is a regular visitor to Woodway as she loves nothing more than seeing her pride and joy up on the gallops in the mornings.
As you are probably aware Eve has been away at the sales over the past month, scouring though hundreds of Yearlings trying to seek out next years stars. As per usual Eve has purchased some great looking Yearlings - some early/ sharp sorts and some with more stouter pedigrees. The new recruits have headed off to begin their education with Hetta Stevens and Hen Knight who do a fantastic job of getting the Yearlings to point that they are ridden away and ready to come back to us.......riders sit tight!!
Eve purchases Yearlings for every type of Ownership whether it be sole ownership, partnerships of 50% shares or 25% shares and smaller syndicates. Some of our Yearlings are looking for new Owners and pictured below are a select few on offer but the rest can be viewed on our Horses In Training page. If you would like anymore info on some of the Yearlings on offer, please contact our office on 01235 850480 or email liam@johnsonhoughton.com
A final mention must go to Gadget and Scrabble who have been doing a sterling job of keeping things ticking over whilst Eve has been away but they still need practice on how to answer the phones! It is great to have Gadget back with us following the unfortunate event of him being stolen a few weeks back. The place certainly wasn't the same without him and we are all very relieved to have him home safe and sound. Eve would like to thank everyone for their help with sharing his photo on social media which we're certain played a vital part in him being found.