BG Racing – Update 17-02-25
I hope that you had a good weekend.
I must admit that my enjoyment of the weekend was very much impacted by the news that jockey Michael O’Sullivan had passed away yesterday morning. He suffered a bad fall last week and had been in intensive care until the announcement that he had not recovered from his injuries.
What a difference a week makes. That sad news yesterday came exactly seven days after we were in the middle of our shareholder’s weekend in Bath and that was really enjoyable and positive occasion.
Disappointingly, there was some negativity on Twitter over the weekend when a trainer went public on a dispute with a syndicate over unpaid fees. Not knowing both sides of the story, it is hard to pass judgment, but the British Horseracing Authority will be quick to investigate any possible wrongdoing.
What is really disappointing (and as is so often the case with social media). is that many others are very happy to pass on their views on the situation and are also delighted to make broad statements disparaging all syndicates and racing clubs whilst doing so!
Through the Racehorse Syndicates Association, I know numerous syndicate managers and everyone I know well, does so to share the enjoyment of ownership and go the extra mile to run their syndicates professionally, despite many ending up very poorly paid for their efforts as managers bear the costs of all unsold shares.
It is sad when issues arise, but they are the exception rather than the rule and it is frustrating to see anti-syndicate and racing club comments that end up lumping so many good people into any negativity.
In more positive news, the BG Racing shareholder weekend in Bath was (in my opinion!) a great success and really enjoyable.
We met at the Leigh Park Hotel in Bradford on Avon on Friday evening and from several of us shared an Uber into Bath for the England vs France U20 rugby international. It was a cold and damp evening and we were delighted to be under cover, but we really enjoyed the game. England got ahead in the first half and controlled the game from there but the highlight came as time expired with France pushing for a consolation try that would have given them a six-nations bonus point only for England to intercept and break down the length of the field before one of their players dived in at the corner for a try. That sent everyone home happy!
After another Uber back to the hotel we were off to bed before all meeting for breakfast at the hotel in the morning. We then made our way to Neil Mulholland’s stables where we met others to see both Bella Cavalla and Neil’s Racing Club horse, Midnight Gold.
Bella Cavalla seemed in good order and she did three canters on the hill gallop that we were able to watch with Neil.
After the morning at the stables, several of us headed up to the Angelfish Cafe overlooking a spur of the Kennet and Avon canal for lunch. We then headed back to Bradford on Avon for an afternoon at leisure.
We were back together on Saturday night for dinner at Ravello Italian Restaurant in Bradford. I was lucky that they managed to fit us in as apparently I had booked for 8th March and not February, which could have been a disaster! We enjoyed a really nice evening at the restaurant before heading back to the hotel.
We were out again early on Sunday for another visit to the stables. After some photos with Bella and a quick walk around, we were back in the cars to head off for breakfast. We made it to Merkins Farm Cafe a few miles from the hotel just before they opened at 9 am and it was a good job that we did as there was already a queue! We rounded off our weekend with an excellent cooked breakfast before heading off to our respective homes!
It has been great to share photos and videos from the weekend with shareholders who were unable to attend.
It was great to see Bella Cavalla when we visited for the weekend and she seems in good form. She is still not going to be looking down on her rivals, but she has grown a bit and Neil is delighted with her progress to date.
He thinks that she will be ready to run towards the end of April and possibly even sooner than that and Neil spoke to us about his plans for her this year.
He feels that it is worth starting her off in the kind of races she was competitive in last season to see if we can get her a deserved win. Neil thinks however that she would also be worth looking at over fences and after a couple of runs over hurdles, he intends to school her over fences to see how she takes to that and if all goes well he will run over fences as the year progresses.
Neil seemed very upbeat about Bella Cavalla which was great to hear and that provides plenty of optimism that this could be a fun year.
I do have literally a handful of shares of her available – so if you would like to join the fun, please get in touch.
The February Inside The Rails podcast features an interview with Simon Nott. Simon is a journalist who works for Star Sports bookmakers and he is a big fan of the betting ring at the races. I thought he was a really interesting guest, so please have a listen.
Use the link below or search for Inside The Rails on any podcast app and please tell your friends about Inside The Rails!
https://insidetherails.podbean.com/
Narragansett delivered a win for Neil on the 10th of February and that triggered a good patch for form for Neil as two days later, Gata Ban returned to the winner’s enclosure for the first time since her long absence from the track. It was great to see the patience paying off and hopefully, she can go on from this victory to record further success.
Another nice winner came on the 14th February when Sainte Doctor also rewarded the patience shown with her when she stayed on well to win her 4th start since returning from a long absence and then 24 hours later, Badbury Rings improved on his 2nd last time with a win at Wincanton.
If you are interested in finding out more about racehorse ownership, then please get in touch as I would be delighted to discuss things with you.
Standing order payments can be made to spread the cost of share purchases and shareholders get regular email updates along with the chance to come to the stables with me as well as to the races. There are also shareholder social events during the year.
