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The Countdown Is On! A long overdue blog and lots to catch up on! Roll back to the 19th of April where Hearts Corner won the Intermediate Hunter Chase at Exeter in good form under Josh for owner Becky Roach. Hearts Corner has his own way of jumping but it was nice to see him put in a solid performance like this.   We headed to Axe Vale, Stafford Cross, with 4 solid chances and had a good day albeit a small mishap. Josh mistook the last fence for the ditch (which you bypass on the final circuit) on Important Notice and was subsequently disqualified after winning the Hunt Race. Donny’s Fortune ran a good race in the Intermediate to finish 3rd. Sixteen Letters was seeking his 16th win but Ninth Wave got the better of him in a driving finish and Whitsand Bay did the business in the Restricted under a fabulous ride from Callum Pritchard. On to Vauterhill where we landed a double from two mares who deserved to get their heads in front. Bang On Target dead heated in the Grassroots Conditions race under Robbie David and Did Ja Ever won easily in the Mares and Fillies Maiden under Josh. All the horses ran very well at Upcott Cross albeit a slightly frustrating day with three 2nds. See You Kauto, Whitsand Bay and Hearts Corner all walked away the runner up but Important Notice looked extremely impressive when winning the Restricted comfortably. He is a seriously exciting prospect for his owners Tom and Sally Dalley who will campaign him under rules next season. New recruit, Moonbow, made an impressive start to his career when winning the Maiden at Cothelstone on debut. He has since gone on to Goffs UK Horses In Training sale where he made £20,000. We enjoyed an across the card double on Saturday with Sixteen Letters getting his 16th win at Peper Harow with Izzie Marshall aboard in the Ladies Open. What an incredible servant he has been throughout his career! Varinia won the Bumper at Trecoed under Josh and looks to be another with a good career under rules ahead of her and is now entered in the Thoroughbid sale next week.  Our Dylan backed up his Hereford win with another brilliant win at Stratford on the 9th May. He has been a brilliant horse for 4racing Owners Club and we are so glad he is now able to repay their patience with two wins on the bounce. It was heartbreaking for the team to lose Nickelsonthedime at Warwick on the 11th May. He has been a huge part of the team for several seasons and was most certainly part of the furniture and will be missed by everyone.  We have just returned from a busy week at Doncaster Goffs UK Horses In Training sale. We bought a beautiful 3yo Store by Shirroco (pictured below) and also brought two from the Horses In Training section both out of the Irish Point to Point field. Moonbow sold well and made £20,000 and has gone to Patrick Neville. We head to Ireland next week for the Tattersalls May Store Sale. Looking forward to this weekend, it is the last weekend of the National Point to Point season and we currently sit three wins ahead of Alan Hill in the National Trainers Championship. We have had an incredible season and will be trying our hardest to walk away with the title come Monday but win, lose or draw it has been an amazing season!

15th win for Sixteen Letters! Our good form has continued and we are now into our career best season both National Hunt and Point to Pointing. This is a huge credit to our team who have worked endlessly this winter and with the constant rain, it most certainly has not been an easy few months.  The 7th April saw no Point to Pointing being held in our area, but instead, Exeter Racecourse held a Point to Point Bumper. Mount Mason and Go Johnny Go both took their chances under Darren and Josh. Mason ran a brilliant race to finish second giving weight away to a very smart progressive horse. Johnny unfortunately did not enjoy the heavy going but ran on well to finish 5th. We headed to Cotley on the 14th April with 5 runners which saw the ever so consistent Sixteen Letters storm home to victory. This was Letter’s 15th career win which includes 13 Point to Points and 2 Hunter Chases. He is an owner’s dream horse and has been nothing but a pleasure for John and Floss Symes. Irlandais backed up his Maiden win from two weeks ago at Cothelstone and was given a patient ride by Josh to creep into the race when it mattered to win easily at the line for David and Steph Stevens. Bruce Gobbler made his Pointing debut and was running a solid race before unfortunately falling 3 fences from home. He looks to be another exciting Maiden prospect who should give his owner, Richard House, plenty of fun.  Our Dylan headed to Hereford on the 9th April in search of his first career win and that he did! Given a lovely ride by Ben Godfrey, he won well for 4racing Owners Club who are longstanding supporters of the yard! They are a charity based Owners Group with all profits at the end of the season being donated to various charities which are close to their syndicate members hearts. Longshanks ran another creditable race on the 16th April at Ffos Las. The winner drew clear and Gary, as he’s known at home, was just denied in a photo finish to end up finishing 3rd. Stellar Stream headed to Cheltenham on Wednesday 17th April for the 3m4f but with the increasing drying ground, he found the pace too fast and pulled up.  On the Thursday evening of the Grand National Meeting at Aintree, Big Bert came under the hammer at the Goffs UK Sale after his win on debut at Garthorpe. He was sold and has gone to Rouge’s Gallery Racing under the care of Newmarket based trainer, James Owen. We wish Bertie and new connections the best of luck and we look forward to watching him progress. 

A Bumper Few Weeks Blackmore Farm has been on a winning high for the past 3 weeks both on the National Hunt track and Point to Pointing.  Another two of our 4 year olds made their debuts in Point to Points on the 23rd March. Big Bert and Josh headed to Garthorpe for the 4 & 5 Year Old Maiden. Despite still being green and raw, Bert put in a fine round of jumping and came home 1 length in front. Cue Jump went to Larkhill in the Mares & Fillies Maiden under Callum Pritchard and she ran very pleasingly to finish 2nd behind an ex rules horse who had plenty of experience. We are delighted with both of their performances and they now head to the sales. We had a bumper day on Sunday 24th March. We had 7 runners across Kilworthy and Cotley. We drove home with 5 winners, 1 second and a 4th, which turned into a disqualification (Josh forgot to weigh in with all the winning excitement – woops!!). The Kings Writ started the day off with a beautiful round of jumping to run away with the field at Cotley under Will Biddick in the Mens Open. Izzie Marshall partnered up with Sixteen Letters in the Ladies Open and again, came home in splendid isolation!! Down at Kilworthy, Liwah continued the winning streak when coming home 1 ½ lengths in front of the favourite in the Mares & Fillies Maiden. She enjoyed the better ground and a break from her last run! Lucky Lara (Josh) and Whitsand Bay (Darren Andrews) came head to head again in the Restricted and the form was turned around from Charlton Horethorne. Whitsand Bay had a 5lb penalty and with Lucky Lara also receiving the 7lb mares allowance, she came home the better of the two. It was still a great result filling both the top spots. Hearts Corner rounded the day off with another stellar performance and won the Intermediate. It was a fabulous weekend for the whole team and we all enjoyed pizza for lunch the next day with a couple bottles of fizz!  Even with a lack of racing over the Easter Weekend due to the weather, we still had a brilliant Bank Holiday Monday. We sent Important Notice and Irlandais to a rain sodden Cothelstone. Important Notice was having his first run for us and owners Blackmore Racing Club. Josh rode him very patiently and it paid off with him coming home a comfortable winner. Irlandais had made the switch from National Hunt to Pointing to try and give him an easier time and this paid off with him winning the 3 mile maiden. An Easter Double!! Iris Des Issards put his previous disappointing run behind him to finish 2nd at Taunton in the Hands and Heels Handicap Hurdle under Callum. He is a seriously lovely horse who we think a lot of and he has a very exciting future ahead of him. Sylvies Dance made the perfect comeback after her summer holiday at Hereford on the 27th to storm home in front under Ben Godfrey. Although finding the early pace a bit fast, Ben never panicked and they both picked off their rivals one by one to score going away by 3L. Stellar Stream headed to Ffos Las on Easter Sunday for the West Wales National and looked to be the winner until Stellar Stream made a big mistake at 3 out and gave Ben no chance. You win some, you lose some!! We have National Hunt entries coming up for Nickelsonthedime, Our Dylan and Caspers Court. Go Johnny Go and Mount Mason have entries at Exeter Racecourse in the Point to Point Bumper and we also have entries at Chilfrome if the weather plays ball.

Johnny Can Go & An Exeter 1-2! We had a great day at Exeter on Tuesday with Stratton Oakmont (Ben Godfrey) and Longshanks (Callum Pritchard) both running cracking races coming home 1st and 2nd in the 3m handicap Hurdle. We were hopeful both would run a good race and we couldn’t split them beforehand but Oak just got the better of Longshanks up the run-in to win by 3 lengths. It was lovely to have plenty of Oak’s owners in attendance to see him win his second race of the season. We are so glad he ran well after being hammered with weight last time out at Wincanton when coming 2nd to an extremely well Handicapped horse. Longshanks will get his day in the sun – he has ran ever so consistently this season and hopefully he will repay his wonderful owners with the winner they deserve. Both Oak and Longshanks have both enjoyed stints back in Point to Points and it really has paid off with their confidence.  We had our first 4 year old runner on Saturday in Go Johnny Go at Milborne St Andrews Point to Point. JD Moore purchased him at the Tattersalls July Store Sale for €4,000 and although being a bit backwards when being broken in, he has actually come to hand very quickly. He won by a neck from odds on favorite Posh Dude, who is out of the prolific Point to Point mare, Posh Totty. Josh, Emilie and Tom have all done a brilliant job of producing Johnny and he now looks to have an exciting future ahead of him.  We have been quiet in regards to other Point to Point runners, mostly due to the fact that it keeps on raining and a lot of the meetings have been unfortunately called off! Hopefully the lovely spring weather is just around the corner and we can enjoy the second half of the Point to Point season! We have entries at Garthorpe, Larkhill, Kilworthy and Cotley this weekend, so fingers crossed for a successful one!

North Wales National Winners! We have lost a huge amount of meetings both National Hunt and Point to Pointing, because of the weather. It is a huge shame to all the organisers after all their hard work. Buckfastleigh has been rearranged to this weekend and fingers crossed the rain doesn’t affect their fourth attempt of holding a meeting! The Kings Writ reappeared at Badbury Rings and put up a good performance to finish 3rd in the Mixed Open under Josh. We lost Didmarton on Saturday due to snow which was a huge shame. Charlton Horethorne luckily went ahead and we had a successful day! Mount Mason dead heated in the 4 & 5yo Maiden under Josh for Shannon Lodge Racing. We purchased him in the summer of 2022 at the Tattersalls May Sale as a 3yo. New recruit, Whitsand Bay, made his debut for us and won the Restricted well under Darren for John and Sonia Gardener. A handful of our babies headed back to Charlton Horethorne on Monday for schooling, which all went very well! We can now plan races for a few of them going forward with the first one entered up this weekend at Buckfastleigh. Stratton Oakmont ran another brilliant race for Kayley Woollacott Racing Club at Wincanton when finishing 2nd to a horse who was carrying 2st2lb less than him. Longshanks redeemed himself when he headed back to Exeter and finished 2nd beaten 4.5L in a 3m Handicap Hurdle. Stellar Stream took a step up in trip to run in the North Wales National Chase at Bangor-on-Dee over 3m5f. He led from flag fall and stayed on stoutly to win by 1L and picked up a good prize pot in doing so for loyal owners Jane and Steve Slough. He will be a great horse to go to war with over these marathon trips and is a very exciting prospect going forward.  Love That has been sold on to go under rules with trainer Mike Smith. We wish new connections the best of luck with her! Blackmore Racing Club have welcomed a newcomer in Important Notice, who has come over from Ireland after having 3 runs for Cormac Doyle. Hopefully he will provide the club with plenty of fun. We also welcome Bruce Gobbler for Richard House. He has had a few runs over hurdles for Philip Hobbs & Johnson White and hopefully enjoys the switch the Point to Points.