September 2025 Blog

During a very quiet month with few runners, the highlights were partying and peacocks. September felt like the lull between the summer and the winter. The last of the holidays came to an end and the last few people returned to work. Yet, there was no back-to-school glumness as everyone is impatient for the season to begin properly.

Concerts and Inter-Railing

September was also when the staff took the last of their holidays. 2025 had been the summer of concerts for racing secretary Jade Aspell as she added Coldplay, Oasis, Robbie Williams and Zach Bryan to her list. She wasn’t just welcomed home by her

gorgeous dog Diglet, but also yard cat April. The dark tabby had slowly moved away from her former home in the towering straw bales and into Jade’s cottage. April is now cosying up to Diglet more than catching mice and has even been spotted curled up on Jade’s bed.

Tirana Jakulpi returned from a month of travelling. Firstly, she worked at pre-trainer Aiden ‘Scobie’ Fitzgerald in Ireland where she rode out and worked on the yard. The Irish philosophy of ‘work smarter, not harder’ resonated through her days there.

Tirana also toured round Ireland, visiting Shark Hanlon’s stables, the National Stud and the Galway Festival. Her travels also took her to Dunmore East, Waterford,

Tramore, Dublin and Killarney. After then flying to Ibiza, Tirana inter-railed home via Switzerland and France. Her highlights were Paris and seeing the Eiffel Tower lit up in gold and Lindt’s ‘Home Of Chocolate’ experience in Kilchberg, Switzerland.

Mischief Making

The local tradition on the first Saturday night of September is a Young Farmers Club’s party, called Moreton Mischief. The marquee in a field and a battle line of portaloos hadn't changed since my first night out, many years before, in the Cotswolds, other than down the pub.  Now, many of my fellow mischief-makers are long gone from the area or choosing quieter Saturday nights but, after returning from a dog walk, I was reminded of going back in the day. The scent of crushed grass rising from dancing feet in the packed muggy tent. Apparently there had been a foam parties for a few years but I wasn’t sorry to miss these – I heard that party revelers became freezing as the foam dissolved to water

There was a gaggle of girls outside the hostels, long manes flowing and lots of exposed flesh. Did I see one folding herself into the boot of a small sky-blue car? It was too dark to tell but after the car had revved out of the courtyard, a silence reverberated with the past, and the overriding feeling of being older than my colleagues settled like dust. I went home to my terrier badgering for her food, an excited toddler, a babbling baby and a husband fixated on the football – all things that I couldn’t have imagined at the time when a night out was at Moreton Mischief.

Percy the Peacock

Due to the local shoot, and being surrounded by woods and trees, pheasant and partridge are plentiful, often spooking the string with their flappy, squawky flights to safety. Yet, at the beginning of the month there was a peacock strutting along the roof of the office next to the clock. He's been living in the tree line behind first yard and is a painter's palette of iridescent bluey-greens with his shimmery head topped by a little bobbing crest. His fanning tail has shed but he still discarded a few eyespots. When we arrived back from our holiday, one was left by our back door – a symbol of good luck hopefully for the winter season ahead.

I've nicknamed him Percy and he’s made himself at home in our garden by perching, preening and pecking. A short investigation revealed he belongs to local gamekeeper Ben Hughes, also the owner of Noonetellsmenothin. Ben is happy to leave Percy here for the moment and I hope he doesn’t suffer the same fate as the turkey who, a few years ago, lived with the pheasants and was often spotted by riders. After a fox caught him, all that remained was a scattering of tawny brown like a shredded feather boa.