News

Let’s all shout “Yaaayy!” for a second straight win for LA DOLCE DOLLY, this won at Wincanton. {pause…} Hopefully everyone has finished with their Yaaayy! now. Rather like Plumpton, she opted not to turn the race into an imperious stroll, but grinding out with grim determination is probably going to be her style of racing.…
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Let us start with a calming picture of the Shovelstrode gallops in very early March. On the runners front, things have been in and out since the last update – out initially and in more recently. The win of LA DOLCE DOLLY at Plumpton was the highlight. After a good run at Market Rasen, where…
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Time to hand over to my replacement blogger. I am going to completely disregard the advice of my predecessor, as I have found it to be historically unhelpful, and pass it not only to two horses, but to relative youngsters. What could possibly go wrong? The first new blogger is Suzy Wood, known in the…
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Let us celebrate Michael Bay’s 60th birthday with some dramatic news on arrivals. Explosions abound, and one or two horses that have been on the easy list are hairy enough to pose dramatically in front of a wind machine while someone rams a horsebox through a huge pile of crates inexplicably filled with chicken feathers.…
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This update is to commemorate the 1,276th anniversary of the Abbasid Revolution. Nobody at Shovelstrode was to blame for starting it, although Finnegan’s Garden may have been involved on a small scale. On to the recent runners… A mixed bag since the last update. The best outcome was at Bangor, where a long trip was…
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Yes, it is the 900th anniversary of the death of Borivoj II. He is of interest because his predecessor and successor were the same man, Vladislaus I, but his father was Vladislaus II. However you look at it, this does not make much sense. Our first runners back after the run of abandonments were on…
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I appear to have retired from racing, although I have no recollection of making that decision. {You did drop some hints – Ed.} Monty’s Award also had the same experience when passing the blog over to me. There is clearly some type of sinister conspiracy at work, and I look forward to hearing Mel Gibson’s…
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Hello world at large. I will not wish you a happy new year, as horses celebrate new year on 28th August. No idea why, nor why steppe horses in the former Soviet republics do so on 17th September instead. Anyway, you are very cold at the moment, and I am continuing to hole up in…
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It is also the 1,658th anniversary of the Alemanni leading a confederation of tribes over the Rhine into the Roman Empire and sounding the effective death knell of the western half of the empire, assisted by a few decades of Roman internal bickering, assassination of competent officials by ambitious but talentless rivals, and general self-destruction.…
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Merry Christmas to all our readers. And there are a couple of other notes. We took a couple to Fakenham for the last jumping before Christmas. FLEMEN’S TIPPLE finished a solid third, proving that it will be worth the early start to go back there on New Year’s Day for the excellent prize money on…
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