August 2025 Blog

As July slid into the stuffy heat of August, National Hunt racing took its three-week break, which felt like a deep breath before the season really starts. The jockeys took their holidays and stable staff, despite riding out lots of horses, readied themselves for the busyness ahead. Days were airless and mostly sunny, and when the much-needed rain came, it was too sporadic and only a sprinkling. The temperature dropped on cloudy days but it was still warm. Staff at Jackdaws Castle savoured their last holidays and we said a few permanent farewells.

Sun, Sea and Beach Rides

On a girls’ break in Greece, head girl Georgia Plumb, head of travelling Alex Howitt and Lucy Westlake took some local horses, which Georgia described as ‘slow and so uniformed, they followed one behind the other’ on a beach ride. They waded out deeply into the sea until the saddles were half-submerged, and the girls were up to their bare knees (they wore shorts!). Their holiday also included jet-skiing, drinking, tanning and dancing!

We also waved farewell to two much loved part-time riders. Carley Chutter flew off to her new job and new life in New York. By now, she will have seen the Statue of Liberty and Times Square! Phil Johnson, who rode out most Saturdays, has moved to near Ledbury in Herefordshire. He plans to ride out Flat horses at Ed de Giles’, and I recommended he also ride out for Matt and Nicky Sheppard in Eastnor deer park for great scenery, great riding and great people.

Gin O’Clock

There are few drinks that shout summer more than a G&T. The chinking ice cubes, a smile of lemon or lime and the fizzle of tonic over fruity hues of a flavoured gin or botanicals of a crisp gin. There has been an increase in racing-themed gins and O’Neill Racing has had its own for a while now.

The first was created just after Covid by Foxdenton, and were gin liqueurs in a rich ruby Damson and a golden Lemon and Cucumber. The second came last autumn in honour of launching the new O’Neill Racing; a logo-ed, chunky bottle of dry gin produced by the Kinrara Distillery in the Scottish Highlands. They then produced a special craft gin for this summer’s Owners’ Days in bottles gorgeously illustrated with a Thoroughbred’s head. 

Apart from training big winners, I can’t think of a better marketing strategy!

Who Let the Dog Out?               

For about three months over the summer, a stray lurcher roamed local fields, often around Jackdaws Castle. She travelled across a large area, and was seen on farmland round the village of Notgrove, over eight miles away. Sightings on local Facebook groups increased, and the string would often see her streaking across fields. A few times, the Boss saw her sunning herself in the compound. No one knew how she came to the area but it was most likely through illegal hare coursing or lamping. So innate was her flight instinct, no one could get near her.

The staff, led by Megan Petrie, began leaving water and food out at the top end of the then-empty barn, which the dog ate. One afternoon, I was sat on my sofa at home and she tiptoed past our patio doors – she was ribby but not in bad condition, still wearing a leather fishtail collar and had soulful dark eyes that looked ringed in kohl. I thought she’d fled but then my small terrier began barking at her curled up in the furthest corner of the garden. I quickly called Joe and AJ in the office, but she ran away, fighting her way through the garden hedge, Daisy’s barking more hysterical.

It was odd she’d come so close to civilisation after months of being feral; maybe she was weakened or tired of running. So, AJ contacted Noah’s Ark Rescue, an independent animal rescue from Gloucester. They trapped her the following night in a cage, the door swinging shut after she triggered an infra-red beam.

I didn’t think of it at the time, but the Go Cat I left out at the satellite yard for the yard moggie had been regularly gobbled up, the bowl licked clean and knocked off the crate on which I always left it. I’d presumed I’d been feeding a local fox but since the lurcher’s capture, the bowl has been undisturbed, the tiny biscuits picked over in feline-fashion. It also turned out that Daisy had been gulping down the food left by Megan. Caught in the act, Daisy had run home; instead of guilt, she looked very pleased with herself. I wouldn’t have been surprised that, if the trap had been there longer than one evening, the lurcher would’ve been beaten to it by a certain tiny piebald terrier.

Only this week, Cheltenham Animal Shelter has put ‘Barbie’ up for adoption, reiterating that she needs a quiet, sensitive home without kids. She also finds cats too irresistible to chase! In the new photo, her ribs are no longer sticking out and her coat is darker than her previous sun-bleached burnt caramel but those Maybelline eyes remain doleful. Shockingly, Barbie is only two so will adapt to comforts and love in time. (Please email here if you’d be the correct loving home: dogs@gawa.org.uk) It’s just lovely to know that she is getting the chance of a happy ending.

A Flat Winner

On August 23rd, the yard sent out its first Flat winner in five years. Sweetheart Just Adair won decisively at Windsor under Cieren Fallon. Last winter, we had winners at the new Windsor jump meetings so it was great to tick off a Flat one there again. It’s been a while since we focused a handful of horses on the Flat and hopefully, we can do so again. As a racing groom, going Flat racing offers better weather, different tracks and lighter jockeys to leg up! There’s enough left of this summer to send out a few more runners and, of course, there’s next summer…

Just Adair

Photo Credit: Windsor Racecouse

Brambling

Around the estate, before harvesting, the fields of crops looked withered, umber and droughted but, in contrast, the hedgerows were heavy with punnet-loads of glossy, plump blackberries. The knotted briars certainly boasted a bumper crop. I picked some, their reddish-purple juice bleeding onto my fingers, to put in my toddler’s packed lunch to enhance the highly processed, sugary miniature Party Rings and Maryland Cookies.

The winter horses have begun to canter. Their hooves kick up dust as if they’re cantering over a desert but, when those blackberries have bulged and rotted on their prickly stems, there’ll be a faint whiff of the rain and cold that signifies the proper jumps will start again soon…