Literary Landmark Update
A generic header, as 12th January 2026 covers both the 150th birthday of Jack London and the 50th anniversary of Agatha Christie’s death. So very much a swings and roundabouts moment, depending on how broad your literary tastes may be.
Since the last update we had a festive spell without runners. Given there being plenty of racing over Christmas and New Year, we targeted Plumpton’s Sussex National day for a whole bunch of runners. A large element was the expectation of better ground that was prefereable for the horses we had available and the other was that racing in the previous week or so would soak up a bunch of the opposition. The perfect plan, based on horses that were declared, but the cold weather defeated even Plumpton’s robust frost defences.
The upshot of this was we ended up back in action with three novice hurdlers going to Fontwell a week later. The first to run was MONANSUNU, having his first venture over hurdles. Jumping in a crowd caught him out a bit earlier on, and the soft patches were a bit too soft for him, but he ran on willingly to the line and learned a lot from having a race within a race alongside three others from the second last, albeit a fair bit behind the placed horses. EPHYRA came next, and as the rain began, we were definitely concerned about how conditions would be for her, but she handled it well and improved on her two earlier hurdle races, ending up fifth and completing her race in pleasingly resolute style. The final runner was YASMINA, who was fourth, ending up in the middle of a three way scrap for third place. She too seemed very at home with the conditions and could join Ephyra in an early switch to handicap company.
The pictures below are Monansunu and Yasmina – the attempt to take one of Ephyra was spoiled by raindrops. Arty, but hopeless as a rendition of a racehorse.
