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The Sunday Syndicates Post – Vol. 2, Issue 28

Our annual pilgrimage to the yearling sales has begun. We came up short in our quest to source our first yearling of the year at the Goffs UK Doncaster sales. Once again the sales ring is displaying remarkable resilience in the face of global turmoil. There is an insatiable appetite to purchase racehorses and the market metrics were extremely strong.

An 89% clearance rate was backed up by a 20% increase in the aggregate, an 8% increase in the average to £44,043 and a 9% increase in the median to £35,000. We had a go at a couple of horses but failed to find value so we’ll roll onto the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling sale in three weeks time.

Gigginstown Dispersal

The annual Gigginstown House dispersal will headline the Goffs UK HIT sale on September 7th. Grade 1 winners Battleoverdoyen, Notebook, Felix Desjy, Hardline and Daly Tiger head an 18 strong draft from the O’Leary operation. We’re delving through the catalogue as we speak in search of another Cabaret Queen who was purchased in Doncaster in 2019 for £13,000. Click here to view the catalogue and let us know if there’s a certain horse you think we should buy.

Rain, rain come again another day?

In typical Irish fashion we’re never happy with the weather. If it’s raining we’re always looking for the sun, if its sunny were looking for the rain. We’ve two very eager groups of syndicate members waking up every morning, putting the slippers on and heading outside to do their daily rain dance. Freedom Falls is chomping at the bit to get her second visit to the racetrack under her belt which will hopefully happen this Friday in Down Royal. The form of her first run has worked out very well, she’s got much stronger and looks to have taken a step forward so we’re hoping for a little bit of ease in the ground to get a run on Friday.

Johnny Murtagh’s Fast Tara is the second filly that we are awaiting rain for. She’s been ready to go for the last month or so but the dry conditions have prevented her from making her debut. She has shown up well at home. She’s grown a huge amount and probably isn’t finished yet so we’re excited to see what she can do for us this year and next on the track.

Coast to Curragh in memory of Pat Smullen

350 cyclists took part in a 155km cycle from Laytown Strand to the Curragh racecourse yesterday in aide of Cancer Trails Ireland. AP McCoy, Paul Carberry, Barry Geraghty, Robbie Power and Patrick Mullins were just some of the names that took part in the cycle. 170 people attended a sold out lunch in the Qaks restaurant where a charity auction raised €66k.

Rippling Waters (shadow roll) finishing 2nd on debut for the Cancer Trials Ireland Syndicate

On September 11th 2019 Jack had the idea to claim a horse in Laytown to form a syndicate as a fundraiser for Cancer Trials Ireland. Rippling Waters was a €5k claim from Jamie Osbourne and Melbourne 10 who went on to join Tracey Collins. She was 2nd on debut at 20/1 for Tracey before going on to sell for €27,000 at the Goffs February Sales in 2020 with all proceeds, including prize money, donated to Cancer Trails Ireland.

Jargon busters

The jargon behind some of the terms in racing can often be confusing and can act as a barrier to entry. We’re here to help with a new weekly segment in the SSP focussed on busting some jargon. This weeks topic is balloting.

Ballot – a horse is placed on the ballot when the maximum amount of entries in a race has been received. There is a series of preferences that moves a horse up the ballot sheet such as placing 2nd-5th in a flat maiden or if your horse had most recently been balloted from another race. Click here to view the full list of balloting preferences.

Back to school

The kids aren’t the only ones heading back to school in the coming weeks. Our 3yo stores have all settled in really well to the breaking process. When they arrive from the sales they’ll do a continuance of what they’ve already done as part of the sales preparation.

Warm up on the walker, lunge with one line to the bit before the roller is added. The roller mimics a saddle, it’s quite like a heavy girth that gets the horse used to having something straddled across their backs and gets them used to tightening a girth. When the roller is added a second rein is attached to the other side of the bit mimicking a rider using reins. The horse is then “driven in long reins” meaning a person stands behind the horse with two long reins attached to the bit, through the roller and into the person hands at the back of the horse. The horse is then “driven” around the yard/arena/gallop getting used to obeying instructions and steering, a process we refer to as “mouthing”.

3yo Walk In The Park ex. Pharenna filly under David Brickley in Ard Erinn Stud.

After the horse has been driven, mouthed and looks settled enough to ride then a saddle is added. The horse can be lunged in the saddle for a couple of days to get them used to the extra weight and feel of a saddle versus the roller. A jockey will then lie over the horse a number of times before swinging the leg and riding them off. The above video (original post only) is our Walk In The Park filly who has taken the breaking process in her stride and is described as a “real early, readymade bumper filly”’.

3yo Masked Marvel ex. Cervano filly under David Brickley at Ard Erinn Stud

Time and patience are the two most important factors when dealing with horses. They will always tell you when they are ready for more work. For example, the Masked Marvel filly above was a little bit slower to adapt to the second rein than the Walk In The Park but as you can see from both videos both horses are quite and riding with ease.

Thank you.

Thanks for reading. If there’s anything we can do please get in touch john@syndicates.racing.

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