I’m not one to blow my own trumpet.
The Trainer - No longer the owner of the UK's widest gallops
Let’s face it, it’s far easier to have others do it for you, but on this occasion I’m more than willing to claim responsibility for hitting the right note.
Time and again we hear of the Trainer’s pride in his gallops at West Ilsley. The downland grass and the fresh West Berkshire air, untouched by the plough since the dawn of time (the grass, not the air) and all that blather. But it’s not what you’ve got, it’s how you use it.
Only the other day, the resident handler was waxing lyrical about the width of the all-weather track and how it offered horses under his care “the widest synthetic surface in the country”. To a degree this was very true, but I felt the need to point out that from his perspective it was a cambered gallop, six furlongs wide and only twelve feet long.
I suggested that it might be far better utilised if he were to work the two year olds up the camber, across the gallop if you will, allowing for a far more testing exercise.
Especially on work mornings.
Five juvenile winners on the board already since this change in regime, with the animals markedly improved from the obese, asthmatic throng that they were beforehand.
This is no time for false modesty – it truly was a Cecillian piece of equestrian genius on my part.
