Fun At The Festival With Flo

Hi everyone! It has been an amazing few weeks for me since my last blog! Things have been exciting, to say the least. We’ve had Cheltenham festival, I’ve been skiing and now it’s back to the grind for some summer antics.

The Cheltenham Festival was definitely a personal highlight with the yard having two winners, a 2nd, and all 11 entries, bar one in the placings! First up was L’homme Presse, who won the Grade 1 Brown Advisory novice chase! Everyone on the yard was going mental, dancing, crying, laughing...we couldn’t believe we had won a Grade 1 at the Festival. The exhilaration didn’t stop there as next up was Funambule Sivola, who came 2nd to Energumene in the Grade 1 Queen Mother champion chase at 40/1, taking on some of the best horses around! This was then followed by a 3rd from Frero Banbou, a 4th from Fanion D’estruval in the Ryanair, and a 3rd from Didero Vallis in the Kim Muir. One of the most exciting results was Lucy Turner and Chambard winning the Kim Muir! Lucy and Chammy (as he’s known at home) had been partnered up all season, racking up four wins and two 2nds already this season, so adding a festival win to both of their belts was amazing! Lucy is also a keen point-to-pointer and is often riding in point-to-points in between riding for Venetia. We then had Royale Pagaille, in a very hot Gold Cup on the Friday, picking up a 5th out of the 11 runners. After a very successful Cheltenham the team had a lot of partying and celebrating to do!

Lucy & Chambard after winning the Kim Muir! Photo kindly provided by Hattie Austin Photography

After the excitement of Cheltenham had died down a bit, I flew off to Switzerland to try out skiing (which I can say I don’t think is my forte). I ended up enjoying the après more than the ski! I came back on the 27th as Tango was entered for an open hunter chase at Ludlow, however the ground had dried up and would prove too quick for him, so we have decided to enter him in a hunter chase at Warwick on the 31st; fingers crossed for some of rain so the old boy can get out and about soon before the season comes to an end! He is feeling exceptionally well and I’m very excited to take him back out and give him a spin. I think I’ll definitely stick to riding racehorses and not skiing for the foreseeable future!

Catch up next month!