Baileys Blog

Plus 4 and dry when driving in.

Stuart Rolt and I are honoured to have been asked to do a joint eulogy at Patricia Ruck Keene’s memorial service on May 1st.. Yesterday, Stuart and I, along with my sister.. met up for a light lunch at The Chequers to discuss tactics....

The Chequers is under a new ownership again..

The rest of the afternoon was wasted talking to Vodafone who had issued me with a new sim card, but for some extraordinary reason it does not or won’t work!!. I am fed up with Vodafone and am desperate to leave them..but..

We had our usual vet visit and this week’s movers and shaker in the BHA handicap charts was Magical Escape down 3 to 114.

Tennis. Emma Raducanu won again in Miami and is now into the last 8..

Football.. England won again. Dull game..

Ian Reid's offering on yesterdays joke..

Back and forth...back and forth. In and out...in and out. A little to the right...a little to the left. She could feel the sweat on her forehead, between her breasts and trickling down the small of her back.

She was getting near to the end. He was in ecstasy with a huge smile on his face as his wife moved... Forwards then backwards...forward then backward... Again...and again!

Her heart was pounding now...Her face was flushed...She groaned... softly at first, then began to groan louder.

Finally, totally exhausted, she let out a piercing scream, "OK, you smug bastard, so I can't parallel park. You do it!"

Happy birthday to one of The Turf Club owners Adrian Grazebrook.. It is also Bert's birthday!!.. Extra big bone for one of them today..

Plus 5 and dry when driving in.

It is very noticeable how the hedges have started to green up over the last few days.. warmer weather and the 2 mm of rain helps

Those who went to Carlisle and stayed over had a great weekend.

How many times have I heard..’ We would love to stay away and see our horse run’.. Carlisle is a far enough venture for many down South, so those who went had a great chance to do just that, and then their horse Does He Know ran well to help the weekend.

Dear DHK loves racing, but carrying 12 stone for a small horse is tough. But he was carrying 12 stone because he is so consistent.

Yes, he finished third yesterday, but he jumped the last upsides, but then the weight took over… He really has been and still is such a fun horse to own and train.

Carlisle is well run and a great racecourse to visit. They help and make owners very welcome. The chase track is as good as any in the country.. A proper test of jumping.

Excellent racing from Kelso on Saturday.. Such a great racecourse and so friendly, just a shame it is so far away! They must have done a great job with their ground as they had no non runners, unlike Bangor and Newbury down South, who suffered with drying conditions.

It was an interesting sporting weekend..

The highs and lows of sport.. Tennis..British number one Jack Draper lost in straight sets to Jakub Mensik at the Miami Open in his first match since lifting the Indian Wells title.

Last night Emma Raducanu won and is now through to the last 16..

Brits were second (Orlando Norris) and third (George Russell) in the Chinese Grand Prix..

I don’t know whether you noticed but Oleg Gordievsky, the long-standing KGB double agent who defected to Britain, has died aged 86.

Gordievsky was said to be Britain's most valuable spy in living memory inside Russia's intelligence agencies. If you have never read 

Ben Macintyre’s brilliant book 'The Spy and The Traitor' then you must..I promise you will not be able to put it down..

To finish.. Happy birthday to Lauren Keen Hawkins. Lauren is doing well and continues to progress..

My friends sex change operation from male to female, went really well yesterday.

In fact, it was so successful he's still trying to reverse out of the hospital car park..

Plus 10 and damp when driving in.

My new replacement rain gauge has finally arrived, just in time to record 1mm of rain last night.... I have not needed it for the last 3 weeks and I sincerely hope I will be reading more measures shortly!

Amber Armytage’s Thanksgiving Service was such a wonderful testimony to such a special person. The Church was packed, and the Marquee outside was likewise.. Tremendous music, hymns, poems and readings.. Richard Phillips delivered a heartfelt eulogy… It was certainly a celebration of a great person, and family and friends were brilliant.

Saturday morning.

Ciaran Gethings was in to ride out while Tom Bellamy was up North at Kelso.

Charlie and Harriet Morefield were here for a morning on the gallops and breakfast as booked through CD Tours

Stuart and Georgie Portlock were here third lot to see their KBRS horse Zmiinyi.

It is a huge weekend of racing up North.. Their Cheltenham. A big money prizewise weekend of racing  Kelso today and Carlisle tomorrow.. We have a runner at Carlisle tomorrow when Does He Know heads there for their Veterans race.. For our thoughts on his chances please click here.

Tennis. Emma Raducanu won in Miami.. Jacob Fearnley also won.

Football. Boring game but at least England beat Albania 2-0

Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton won the Sprint race in China.. Now the qualifying for the Grand Prix.

George Foreman has died at 76 .What a boxer..

Information overload, artificial intelligence, fake news, slanted analysis, book-burning and gas-lighting: recent global events have caused commentators to question the relationship between information, knowledge and wisdom. Faced with a barrage of data we must quote T.S. Eliot…

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?

Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

On that note have a great weekend and see you Monday.

Happy birthday to John Garrett and my Godson Toby RK..Tomorrow Oliver Sherwood make the big 70..Oli is currently living his second stage of youth (Gap year) .. Travelling around New Zealand and later in the year, Australia.... Enjoy my friend..
 

Plus 10 and dry when driving in. It hit 20 degress here yesterday..Hottest day of the year

Mat survived his trip to London, although there were a couple of mishaps judging by the phone calls to Molly!

Colin Sewter was here third lot to see his KBRS horse Reallyntruthfully. Talking his horse..Tom Bellamy picked up a ban (March 28 to April 3) when riding RNT to win at Doncaster..

Tom was in to ride out this moning.

We have our usual Friday vet visit

Archie flies into Heathrow today!!  His cricket tour in South Africa finished yesterday..His flight made it Madrid.. An early Spanish holiday!!

Sad to read that Eddie Jordan has died.. What a character.. Never a dull moment in his life.

On an even sadder note.. 

Amber Armytage, wife of Marcus died on March 1st and her Thanksgiving Service is today at 1pm in All Saints Church Brightwalton..

Amber was one very special and hugely talented lady and at 53 far too young. All our condolences are to Marcus and their three children Arty, Molly and Arabella…

How Marcus wrote so many wonderful columns at last week’s Cheltenham Festival for the Telegraph I just don’t know..

An excellent Irish Blessing 

May the roads rise up to meet you,

May the wind be always at your back,

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

May the rains fall soft upon fields

And until we meet again

May God hold you in the palm of his hand.

Plus 2 and dry when driving in. Is it going to be warmer in the UK than Greece today?

The spring equinox begins today, hence the first day of astronomical spring. Meteorological spring falls on March 1. The Met Office says astronomical seasons “refer to the position of Earth's orbit in relation to the Sun''

Thursday is our easy day and with no runners now until we have some rain, it could be a quiet few days.

I am not keen on risking horses on drying ground unless they have form on it. A jarred tendon means missing all of next season!

Mat heads to town today.. Yes, London.. to attend the annual NTF meeting.. His first time at the NTF and he must negotiate the underground.. Molly has been very helpful with his ticket choices..

Thoughts on the new style of modern Grand National..

After the above which is one of the jump season last big races, the flat takes over..The English flat season starts..  29th March at Doncaster.. The Irish equivalent started on Sunday at The Curragh… I am sure I can hear the groans?

For those of you who have been to Thorndale will have passed our ever increasing muck heap. We bed our horses on straw and every year we turn the muck heap and then the rotted down straw is then spread on the fields. Great for the grass..

This time of year, especially when the sun starts to warm up we are inundated with animals.. especially deer..Fallow and Muntjack.... Can you imagine what Bert thinks of them?? Mrs B has her arms stretched when out walking to the gallops.. he must be on a lead..

One of the all time great adverts..

Minus 1 and dry when driving in.

Bloody cold considering it was so sunny at Exeter yesterday. The wind whipped through every open door!

The sun made the horses look well and as usual Magical Escape won the Best turned out prize.. Thankfully, he won something as he failed to really inspire too much when finishing 4th. It was his first run back over hurdles and he had a good look to see if a fence was lurking behind some of the hurdles!

Wednesday morning brought in Tom Bellamy to ride out.

We jumped Court In A Storm and Jeudidee..

David Robinson who has a KBRS involvement in Moon Rocket was here to see him strut his stuff second lot.

Here is a good Irish quote..

"Here’s to a long life and a merry one,

A quick death and an easy one,

A pretty girl and an honest one,

A cold pint – and another one!"

Happy birthday to Ludlow's clerk of the course Simon Sherwood..

Plus 1 and dry when driving in. Not a cloud in the sky..

Will Hancock was here early this morning looking for some help and advice re videoing in racing yards.

We had our usual vet visit and this week’s movers and shakers in the BHA handicap charts were Trelawne down 2 to 150 and Reallynthruthfully went up 1 to 124 and Percy Veering went down 1 to 100..

Rory McIlroy claimed his second Players Championship title with a comfortable victory over JJ Spaun in a three-hole play-off at Sawgrass.

End of an era..The last Battle Of Britan pilot John 'Paddy' Hemingway died yesterday aged 105.. Remarkable man.

Archie, lucky chap, he is half way through a 10 day cricket tour. Pre season training with Gloucestershire in Stellenbosch..Before he went he was subject to a podcast with Stephen Wallis..

We have one runner today at Exeter. Magical Escape heads there and for our thoughts please click here.

“May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light, may good luck pursue you each morning and night.”

“May you always have walls for the wind, a roof for the rain, tea beside the fire, laughter to cheer you, those you love near you, and all that your heart might desire.”

“May your home always be too small to hold all your friends.”

Plus 4 and damp when driving in.

Thank you for the emails on your thoughts on last week’s Cheltenham Festival.

All said they enjoyed their days at Cheltenham. They also enjoyed being able to move about. Again, all commented on the staff and how good they were.. The bad/false starts were another very common factor.. they all used the word 'Embarrassment'.

Irish dominance.. I believe they had 251 runners to our 197. They won 20 of the 28 races. One race did not have a single runner from England and another only had two and a further race had only one!

One person commented that too many English based owners had winners, but their horses were trained in Ireland..

TV audience was up.. 1.8 million for the Gold Cup.

The price of Tattersalls enclosure and one mention of Club tickets being too expensive.. interestingly no mention of the price of drinks!

Race programming needs a tweak.. Lossiemouth not running in the Champion Hurdle upset some... Championship racing.. Best should take on best

Cost of local accommodation was certainly mentioned. The park and ride was a success..

One person commented..'I have been lucky enough to attend race meetings all over the world ie Australia,USA, France & Ireland.At all of these venues you are literally falling over stars & stripes & tricolours on entry to the racecourse. At Cheltenham not one Saint George cross on view anywhere, there was one solitary Union Jack on the roof of the new stand.'

Overall, most were very happy and felt that with a few changes the Festival will be even better next year..

Will the crowds come back to the levels of 2022.. No, they won’t as that was the first year after Covid. They were down 10,000 from last year and in between the economy has had troubles and the PR from last year was not great. 'Benidorm factor' does not help but I personally feel that people will drift back if the racecourse can push and help the ordinary punter/racegoer.. 

And being a four day Festival many are now doing 2 days rather than 3, let alone all 4.

On that note one person suggested that Cheltenham should sell 2/3 day tickets at slightly reduced rates.. Also Festival radio was missed.. although I think was still going but probably under a different name?

Cheltenham is still about the best racing experience on this side of the English Channel when it comes to jump racing, although Aintree is right up there..Embrace and enjoy..

Moving on.. Tennis Jack Draper beat Carlos Alcaraz and then last night he won the final in some style againt Hoger Rune

France won the Six Nations ..... England ran havoc through Wales..

Lando Norris won the Melbourne Grand Prix.. A Brit in front again.

Newcastle beat Liverpool in the Caraboa Cup.

Monday morning..

Ian and Pam Farnsworth were here third lot to see their KBRS horse Zmiinyi..

St Patricks Day and therefore Patrick Bailey's birthday..

Fun fact: The biggest consumers of Guinness? It’s actually Nigeria and the UK—not Ireland!

To finish.. A must watch video..on Instagram

Plus 2 and dry when driving in..

A winner yesterday.. Not one of our Cheltenham tips, but one we trained!

Reallynthruthfully won his second race of the season, this time at Doncaster.. He jumped off in front and was never headed although he had work to win as he had a good look at the last and needed to be rousted out to keep his head in front. It was good to see him back in the winners enclosure.. he deserved it after being chinned on the line last time out at Hereford.

Happy owners and there were quite a few of them making the journey North.. Our in house KBRS.. The Nothingbuthetruth Syndicate..

Tom Bellmay was also pleased as his horse in the first race did a State Man when falling well clear at the last.. It could have been a very long journey home for Mat if our horse had not won as he travelled up there with Tom.

Oh so sad to see the mighty Galopin Des Champs lose his Crown. Second we don’t like, but it was a hugely impressive win by the supplemented Inothewayurthinkin.. I believe he was the first horse to be supplemented to the Gold Cup?

Looking back on the 4 days it has been brilliant racing with some great stories and some true disasters..  You know them..

It has also been an interesting week for Cheltenham Racecourse as there has been, and will be, loads of column inches written about their thoughts on what needs changing.

False starts for one.. Far too many and although some we definitely jockey’s fault,  some were avoidable.. Too far to walk in and hard to keep a good line.. ask any cavalry man?

Crowds down.. by some number.. Yes, we were warned, but thinking caps now on as to why.. People talk about cost of drinks but frankly every big event I have been to has been similar in prices..

Those who went loved the fact that they could move around and get a drink. The staff were very helpful and friendly, but it lacked a bit of the old atmosphere.. where was the roar and where were the horse fans to welcome the winners back in.. Was it because there were too many Irish winners? Yesterday they all were.

Personally, I loved it and I know most others who went did too, but when you see so few people in the Guinness area just before the first race on Thursday you must wonder..Cheltenham needs to look to the ordinary racegoer to bring back the buzz.. the hospitality areas seems to be full..

Locally the town was quieter than it should be..Peter Kerr who runs my KBRS tried to book a hotel on Tuesday morning for that night, he was told his room would cost £500 for the night.. but that same hotel rang back midafternoon and offered him the same room for £150..Which he took..

It is going to be a rough ride for the new CEO Guy Lavender, but I believe he will achieve what he wants, but it will not happen overnight.. .

We are in tough times, although when you read the Tattesalls Cheltenham Sale results you wonder.. Punters/racegoers want value and although costs might not change, they want that something special when they get in.... Take the restaurant analogy..You don't mind paying for excellent food and good service, but you don't like paying if it is not!....Roll on 2026?

Do email me thoughts if you went racing this week..

Footnote of all of the above.. Great, Good and Indifference but listening to John Hunt was a very special moment..

Tom Bellamy and Ciaran Gethings in to ride out..

Cheltenham over.. The Six Nations..where I am sure their prices are very similar and stadiums full?

Italy play Ireland... England play Wales, now that will be a huge match and France play Scotland... all eyes could be watching this match..

The first Grand Prix of the season. Melbourne and a new Ferrari driver..

Tennis.. Jack Draper takes on Carlos Alcaraz.

Mr Tickle wanted to marry the girl of his dreams

However, Tess was reluctant to take on his surname

Have a great weekend.. we have no runners.. we will see you on Monday..

Minus 1 and dry when driving in

Another fabulous days racing at Cheltenham and Brendas Asking gave her owners the thrill of their racing lives by running a blinder in the Ryanair mares novice hurdle. She jumped like a gazelle and led right up to and over the second last when the field eventually overtook her. David Carey and Not The Turf Club had a dream day..

It was a cold old day, but those who were there were well rewarded by some great championship racing. 

Rachel Blackmore rode two winners and the second was on the old stager Bob Olinger in the stayers hurdle. The famous colours of JP were carried in some style by Fact To File in the Ryanair Chase.

Disappointing news of Frankie Dettori, the world's most famous jockey, has announced he is filing for bankruptcy... Somebody has been giving him some very bad advice.

No joy for us at the Tattersalls Cheltenham Sales last night. Record prices..

Today we have the chance to see a great horse win his third Gold Cup?  A feast of good racing on the last day of the festival.

Tennis.. Jack Draper won last night and now plays Carlos Alcaraz in the semi finals of the Indian Wells tennis

We have a runner today but at Doncaster. Reallynthruthfully heads there and for our thoughts please click here

My selections..Hello Neighbour, Absurde, Brides Hill, Ballybow, Galopin Des Champs, Fairly Famous and No Questions Asked.

Mats.. Lulamba, Valgrand, Dinoblue, The Big Westerner, Galopin Des Champs, Shearer and Kopek de Mee