The start of 2025 has got off to a good start so far, with 9 winners notched up on the board already, and even some Group action on the all-weather before the turf bursts into life. Both Mr Baloo and Gemmari have done the team proud, winning twice each since the start of the year and showing great guts and determination. It was also great to see Rebel Empire and Major Major getting back to winning ways in addition to Left Over Love and Standput both showing up for the girls and shedding their maiden tags.
Persica, although unfortunately not able to travel to Saudi Arabia for The Neom, put in a great performance in the Winter Derby to finish 3rd on his first run of the year. This was a nice opening run, and has given us something to build on for the season going forward with him, which looks to be an exciting one.
As for Rosallion, he has wintered very well and has been absolutely full of himself coming back into work, giving Timmy, his regular rider, a hard time of things! It is fantastic to have him back in training this year and s show of Sheikh Obaid's love of the sport that he has allowed us one more year with him to hopefully go and pick up some more Group 1's throughout the year.
Haatem has also come back into us looking even stronger than last year and has also been feeling great in his work so far, so we look forward to another exciting season with him and are grateful again to his owners Wathnan for giving us another year with him.
At the other end of the spectrum, the 2-year-olds have been busy learning their trade, and there are more than a few nice ones showing up already. This is always an exciting part of their lives, as you never know quite what you've got until they start running, and crucially for racehorses, they are all unbeaten!
We look forward to going into the season ahead with a great team of staff, owners and of course horses and hope that it is just as successful as the last!