Well. You could knock me down with a feather...... Billy, on his very first ride WON with the sleepily reluctant Endofdiscussion. They both rose to the occasion and blew the opposition away. I am still shaking my head in disbelief when I think back to the first schooling session, when to put it mildly, it looked like we had an impossible task in front of us. Then we had the Yogi Breisner session when Endo refused to go anywhere near the tiny little jump and Yogi politely said about Billy "I don't know where to start, so I think we will just concentrate on staying on board and keeping your legs forward..."  Doug phoned him after the race and he was speechless at first and then absolutely delighted.
The rest of the horses ran with credit. Popaway came a very good second against an out and out stayer, Scruffy ran a brilliant third in a very hot maiden and was only half a length off the hot favourite, Ponty was in an eighteen runner restricted where they went flat out and he finished around eighth, Val D'Auberge who was also in the same very hot restricted gave Peter Bennett a nice canter around and jumped beautifully, pulling up three fences from home and Goody (Lady Barfad) who we knew needed the run did exactly what we wanted and did a circuit and a half and then pulled up but cantered across the line with her ears pricked. This is her first race after her wind operation and it is so important to take it slowly with her as she has to want to do it. She is not the sort of mare you can force into doing anything.
All horses safe and sound. What a fantastic day.