Barbury's JCB Champions Challenge pits Dickie Johnson's team against Sir Mark Todd's

Written by Tony Millett on 28 June 2016.

2015: Jump jockey Richard Johnson leads from Harry Meade in Barbury's JCB Champions Challenge (Photo: Alan Dale)This year at the St. James's Place Barbury International Horse Trials (7-10 July) senior riders from the eventing and horseracing world will clash once again in the third renewal of the JCB Champions Challenge on Saturday, 9 July.
 
The race, run in aid of the Injured Jockeys Fund (IJF), will feature a stellar line up of two teams of the world’s very best jump jockeys and eventers riding against each other over a specially designed course.  Sir Mark Todd and Richard Johnson have been named as the two team captains.
 
Eager to defend their Champions Challenge crown for a third consecutive year, the jump jockeys will be led by the newly crowned champion jump jockey Richard ‘Dickie’ Johnson. 

Dickie will be joined by a trio of current and former jump jockeys: 2015 Hennessy Gold Cup winner and stable jockey to Barbury's Alan King, Wayne Hutchinson, one of the most successful jockeys of the modern era Tom Scudamore.  Completing the team will be John Francome MBE a former multiple champion jump jockey, who is also vice patron of the IJF.
 
Having been beaten by the narrowest of margins in the two previous years, the event riders have submitted a team comprised of speed and quality that includes two members of New Zealand's team for the 2016 Rio Games. 

2015: Sir Mark Todd in Barbury's JCB Champions Challenge (Photo: Alan Dale)Sir Mark Todd, who will captain the eventers, and  Jonelle Price, known as ‘the fastest rider cross-country’.  They were both members of New Zealand’s Olympic bronze winning team at London 2012. 

Jonelle's husband Tim joins her in the team.  The couple made history in 2014 when they became the first husband and wife team to represent New Zealand at the World Equestrian Games in France. 

Australian eventer, Paul Tapner, completes the eventers' challenge.  He is a past winner of the Badminton Horse Trials and is renowned as a speed specialist in the cross-country phase.
 
The winning junior and senior teams from the inter-hunt relay, held on the same day, will form the final two teams in the JCB Champions Challenge.
 
Commenting ahead of this year's ‘Barbury battle’, Dickie Johnson said:  “In the summer months, as jump jockeys we try to take things a bit easier – but not this year, myself, Hutchinson, Scudamore and Francome – are in serious training and can’t wait to lay down the gauntlet to the eventers.”
 
In response, Sir Mark Todd (who at 60 has become New Zealand's oldest ever Olympian) aimed a cheeky shot at the jump jockeys: “I may be advancing in years, but I am confident I can get one over on Francome – as he is even more advancing than me!”
 
A new addition at this year’s St.James’s Place Barbury International Horse Trials will be the third leg of the Event Rider Masters (ERM). The inaugural ERM is a new sporting series, showcasing the world’s best ‘Event’ riders with a total of £350,000 in prize money and each leg promising minimum prizes of £50,000 - and with television coverage which is being seen around the world. 
 
Tickets for the Barbury International Horse Trials start from £12 per person per day booked in advance.  Entrance is free for children under 12 years.   There is more information on the Barbury website where you can book tickets - or call 01672 516125.

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Beckhampton: Roger Charlton starts his flat season campaign with an exciting squad of two-year-olds - and some older timers

Written by Tony Millett on 20 April 2016.

Roger Charlton with AyradRoger Charlton hopes to run Ayrad, a 5-year-old chestnut owned by Saleh Al Homaizi and Imad Al Sagar, on Friday (April 22) at Sandown in the bet365 Gordon Richards Stakes.  It all depends on the state of the ground.

The continuing wet weather that has affected the jump season so badly, is now starting to worry flat racing trainers.  Earlier in the month Roger Charlton took two runners to Lingfiled and said he was "happy to be avoiding the softened turf elsewhere".

When Newbury's two-day Spring Trials meeting was lost to waterlogged ground, the major Saturday races were switched to Chelmsford's artificial surface course.

It was a tremendous organisational feat.  But there were disadvantages - not all the trainers wanted their horses to run on Chelmsford's all-weather surface - which is considered to run fast.  And with the Friday card abandoned, a clutch of maiden hurdle races was lost leaving several dozen horses still to find races to kick off their season.

Roger Charlton has every sympathy with jump trainers' problems during the season with some needing to run a horse who then gets "a harder race than you want it to have" on heavy ground.  But he adds: "It's the same for everyone".

Bad weather can lead to all sorts of problems.  In the terrible winter of 1947, when Tudor Minstrel was being prepared for The Guineas, they had to lay straw on part of Beckhampton's gallops so he could beat the frozen ground and get some proper exercise.  He won in a record distance.

On a grey and decidedly chilly Monday morning the third group of horses in training with Roger Charlton are being ridden out.  They start with a warm-up on the all-weather trotting ring - a fairly recent addition to the yard's facilities and he says a really valuable one.

They do not exercise on Sundays so they are quite fresh and after their warm-up need only to canter twice round the seven furlong wood chip gallop.   This group is mainly two-year olds and includes two Frankel offspring.

There are five two-year-olds sired by Frankel at the Beckhampton yard.  At the present stage of their development they appear to be taking as much after the mares as Frankel.  One in particular is quite a small horse - at the moment.

A Frankel two-year-oldChecking with riders to see how their horses went(On the right) Al Kazzem's brother Kazawi [Click to enlarge] 

Roger Charlton says that just twenty per cent of foals sired by outstanding thoroughbreds will have the potential to achieve similar results - the other eighty per cent will be good but not outstanding.  This dose of reality gives some context to Frankel's £125,000 stud fee and the £1.15million paid for his first foal (in June 2014.)

As this flat season progresses it will be fascinating to see how the Frankel two-year-olds fare in their races.

Roger Charlton with 2-year-old Sfumato in the new barnRoger Charlton worked at Beckhampton for thirteen years as Jeremy Tree's Assistant Trainer and then took over the licence in 1990. He had a momentous first season with Sanglamore winning the French Derby and Quest for Fame winning the Epsom Derby.  Beckhampton is one of the country's top yards and he now has his son Harry as his assistant trainer.

The Beckhampton Inn became a training yard in the late 1820s and sent out its first classic winner in 1839 - when Deception won the Oaks.  Since then the yard has seen thirty classic winners trained on its famous gallops.

Some of its buildings and loose boxes go back to the 1890s.   They still provide an excellent environment for the horses - their thick walls giving them a steady temperature.  

Beckhampton's two yards have room for ninety horses in training.  At the moment there are 85 horses there.  The other five are still in pre-training or just waiting till the season is underway.  

They should not wait too long - Roger Charlton says: "May is one of our most prolific months."  But the yard has no entries for this June's Investec Derby: "We've not got really good three-year-olds this year."

Last year Beckhampton saw the retirement of one of its stars - Al Kazeem went to stud at Oakgrove Stud near Chepstow where he was bred by John Deer.  Now Beckhampton has Al Kazeem's full brother in training - the two-year old colt Kazawi (Dubawi/Kazeem.)

On the way back from the gallopThe riding out board: a much used relic from earlier daysVirtually in the shadow of Silbury Hill

So that's two horses under Roger Charlton's expert eye to watch this flat season - first Ayrad who is entered for the Group 1 Investec Coronation Cup at the Derby meeting on June 4.  (He is also entered for a Newmarket one mile and four furlong race on April 30.)   And secondly, the two-year-old Kazawi.  

Apart from Ayrad there are other older horses to watch - like Quest for More who came ninth in the Melbourne Cup and won two important races last season - at Goodwood and Newcastle.  And Countermeasure and Time Test - both entered for Newbury's Group 1 Lockinge Stakes on May 14.

That is not, of course, to forget those five Frankel-sired two-year-olds - Zefferino, Occurrence, Fair Eva and two more which are still to be named.  It should be an exciting flat season - weather permitting.

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Biscuit is the Kennet Valley Driving Group's new recruit

Written by Tony Millett on 14 April 2016.

Doug Middlemiss driving BiscuitThe Kennet Valley Driving Group has just welcomed its newest recruit:  Biscuit who is being driven out with his new and specially adapted trap.  He is a traditional gypsy cob loaned to the group by Elinor Goodman.  

He recently passed the stringent test horses have to go through before they qualify to work with a driving for the disabled group.

One of his first drivers was Doug Middlemiss, who has been driving with the group for two years.  He is delighted by the way Biscuit is going: “There is a real spring in his step and he doesn’t mind what goes past him on the roads.”

Doug Middlemiss is one of thirteen disabled people who regularly drive out with the Kennet Valley group.  All disabled drivers are  accompanied by a qualified 'whip' who has a second set of reins and can take over if necessary.  

The group - part of the Riding for the Disabled Association network - offers the opportunity for those with disabilities who are unable to ride the chance to drive a horse and carriage on an equal footing with the able bodied. It is an experience that improves drivers' health and wellbeing - providing an interest and fresh air.

Doug Middlemiss takes the reinsOther helpers are needed to go out with the carriages, either on foot, or in cars, to help with changeovers and to warn traffic about approaching horses and carriages - making sure traffic slows down.

The group is always in need of volunteers to go to Lockeridge, where the horses are currently kept, on a Tuesday or Thursday morning.

No experience of working with horses is necessary as there are many ways volunteers can help like assisting the disabled drivers as they get ready to drive, preparing equipment and making refreshments..

The group has two other heavy horses, and has had to buy a new, specially adapted  trap for Biscuit.   It is always in need of funds.  

Its main main annual fund raising event is the plant sale, held at Barbury Castle Racecourse, which this year is being held on April 24 at from 10.30.   Entry will be £3 for adults with children under 12 going free.

Specialist nurseries will be selling a range of plants that aren’t usually available in garden centres together with garden accessories and sculptures and homemade cakes and refreshments.

Full details are here.

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Book review: Ready wrapped for Christmas - Beckhampton's story is full of local interest

Written by Tony Millett on 09 November 2015.

Beckhampton: The Men and Horses of a Great Racing Stable by Paul Mathieu (published 2015 by Racing Post Books - £25.)   

This well-researched book combines local history, horse racing stories - and some racy stories too - successes and failures on and off racecourses, characters (some very good and some pretty awful) and lots and lots of racehorses.

Flicking through its 350 pages you might be a little alarmed by the number of names - names of owners, trainers, stable staff and, of course, of horses.  It seems at first that as though the author has swallowed the names from entire week's worth of the Racing Post - enough to confuse the most ardent of flat racing fans.

Do not be put off.  This book is a store of wonderful episodes in the very long history of Beckhampton's training stables - and it has a wealth of fascinating illustrations.

It all began, believe it or not, in 1835 when Beckhampton Inn was still a coaching stop on the road to Bath.  Billy Treen, a man who would have run rings round Lord Alan Sugar, spotted a business opportunity in the inn's ample stabling.  

Even before London was linked to Bath by the railway, Beckhampton Inn (famous, apparently, for its 'strong Wiltshire beer, known by the genuine name of Kennett Ale') had been losing custom.  

Not only did he hold the Inn's licence, he was training and riding - and earned a few  extra guineas as clerk of the course at the Devizes and North Wilts races.  Billy Treen trained Beckhampton's first classic winner: Deception won the Oaks in 1839.

Treen had started as a jockey - winning his first race at the ripe old age of fourteen.  He rode race horses owned by Lord Palmerston who, when he became Foreign Secretary, once commanded Treen to ride a relay of horses to a Channel port to fetch a recently signed treaty - not something that worries modern handicappers.

Paul Mathieu's book takes you through all Beckhampton's trainers and prominent along the way are the Darlings - father and son.  Sam began training in 1897 and won seven classics including two Derby winners.  

His son Fred began training at Beckhampton in 1916 and notched up an incredible nineteen classic winners - including six Derby winners.  One of Fred's loyal owners was Lily Langtry - the 'Jersey Lily' who had been the Prince of Wales' mistress.  The photo of her and her hat and veil with a diminutive Fred is one of the delights of this book.

Fred steered Beckhampton through the Second World War's shortages - and successfully stopped American tanks ploughing up the ancient grass gallops.  He had the privilege of running 'the best horse ever trained at Beckhampton': Tudor Minstrel whose eight - or was it ten? - length victory in the 1947 2000 Guineas is recounted with gusto.  As is the 'nightmare ride' the Minstrel gave Gordon Richards in the Derby.

Beckhampton then joined Herbert Blagrave's large portfolio of equestrian property. He is a character you might not want to meet.   And for a time Noel Murless and the maverick Dick Warden - an ex-Special Operations Executive officer - shared the stables.    

In 1953 Gordon Richards became champion jockey for the twenty-sixth time, but was injured in a paddock accident, retired and turned trainer. He had stables at Beckhampton for a short time - until he fell out with Blagrave.

From the start of the 1956 season Jeremy Tree was Beckhampton's sole trainer  - and held the licence there for 34 years.  If anyone is the hero of this book it is Tree with 'his Olympian frame' - and he is still remembered by many among the more elderly people of Marlborough.

He turned Beckhampton into 'a modern international stable'.  Tree was part of 'London society' and brought a wide range of rich new owners to Beckhampton - inlcuding many Arab connections.  He was trainer to the important Saudi owned Juddmonte Farms stud.

Tree retired in 1989 and Beckhampton passed to its current trainer - Roger Charlton.  The chapters on Roger Charlton begin with a bit of a tease:  "From swimming pool attendant to Derby-winning trainer isn't an obvious career path, but it's served Roger Charlton well."

It turns out Charlton was a pioneer of swimming therapy for horses and introduced the first pool at Lambourn.  Charlton took over the stables at the beginning of 1990 and that summer won the Derby with Quest for Fame - as the chapter heading puts it: "Roger Charlton's dream debut."

Since then Charlton has trained for the Queen, has brought Al Kazeem back twice to win Group Ones before his final retirement this year, and won innumerable races in Britain and around the world - including the French Derby.

Last week Charlton watched his entry in the Melbourne Cup come home four lengths behind the winner to take ninth place and win £65,000.  That horse's name - harking back to his Derby winner Quest for Fame - was Quest for More...there are sure to be many more winners to come Beckhampton under Roger Charlton's careful eye.

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Beckhampton trainer Roger Charlton cheered by Time Test win at Royal Ascot

Written by Tony Millett on 18 June 2015.

In the colours of owner Khalid Abdullah, with Frankie Dettori in sparkling form and the ground right, Time Test trained at Beckhampton by Roger Charlton ran away with the Group Three Tercentenary Stakes on Royal Ascot's Gold Cup day.

The race turned into a battle between Marlborough trainers.

Sent off as favourite for the race, Dettori took Time Test from midfield to beat the Queen's horse Peacock by three and a quarter lengths.    Peacock is trained by Marlborough trainer Richard Hannon and was ridden by local jockey Richard Hughes.

After the race Dettori said the three-tear-old Time Test felt like a Group One horse.

In the run-up to Royal Ascot, Roger Charlton had the disappointment of finding one of his star horses Al Kazeem had suffered an injury and could not run in this week's Prince of Wales's Stakes.  The seven-year-old suffered an injury when winning the prestigious Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh last month - by a neck.

Al Kazeem was retired to stud at the end of the 2013 season, but proved sub-fertile and returned to racing the following year.   The Tattersalls Gold Cup won his owner €155,000.

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Before the memorial service in Marlborough for Toby Balding, Ian Balding writes about his brother - the much respected racehorse trainer who died in September

Written by Ian Balding on 07 December 2014.

Toby Balding 1936-2014Next Monday (December 15) many members of the horse racing world – among them well known owners, trainers and jockeys – will gather in Marlborough for the memorial service to mark the life of the much respected and very successful trainer Toby Balding, who died in September aged 78.

The memorial service will be held in the Marlborough College chapel and will start at 2.00pm.

Toby Balding’s brother Ian was also a successful trainer.  He trained the legendary Mill Reef (who won the Derby in 1971.)  Ian Balding retired in 2002 passing his Park House (Kingsclere) training licence to his son Andrew.  Ian Balding’s daughter is Clare Balding the racing journalist and presenter.

Ian Balding has very kindly written this account and appreciation of his brother's life for Marlborough News Online:

Toby was born in England on 23 September 1936.  He went to the USA soon afterwards (our mother was American) and I was born there in 1938.

We stayed in America with our mother in Far Hills, New Jersey all through the war. Our father Gerald Balding, who was English and a famous polo player, fought in the war - with the Life Guards.  

After the war he took us all back to England where he set up as a racehorse trainer. We were both sent to school - first at Beaudesert Park and then to Marlborough College. In the holidays we quickly became cheap labour for him and found ourselves mucking out and then riding the racehorses.

Toby was always going to be too big to be a jockey, so being smaller I was the one destined to be the jockey and Toby the future trainer. In spite of that Toby actually rode a few winners under National Hunt rules – jump winners and a few point-to- point winners too.  

Our father trained at Westonbirt in Gloucestershire for a few years and then moved to Bishops Cannings in Wiltshire.  After a few years there he moved finally to a large stable at Weyhill near Andover.  

All this time his main patron was the American newspaper publisher, philanthropist and sportsman John Hay (Jock) Whitney, who was also Toby`s Godfather.  Toby, by the way, was christened Gerald Barnard Balding, but was always called Toby (after a great family friend) so as to distinguish him from his father.

Sadly our father died of cancer in 1956, and with Jock Whitney`s blessing, Toby who was then 20 and had recently returned from doing his National Service with the Life Guards, took over the training licence. He became the youngest ever trainer to have held a licence in this country.

Jock Whitney, who by now was the American Ambassador in London, was extremely kind and generous to both of us (he financed my further education at both Millfield and Cambridge University for example) and supported Toby very much with his training career.

My younger brother Robin and sister Gail will be very upset if I don`t mention them. They were born in England after the war. In fact they both went back to the USA with our mother soon after our father died. They both went to college over there, married Americans and have continued to live there ever since.

Toby`s training career was very much helped by a big winner on the flat very early on. He won the Portland Handicap at Doncaster with a horse called New World – and had a big bet on him at 25-1!

However, for many years, he was much better known as one of the leading National Hunt (jump) trainers.  He won the Grand National twice – first with Highland Wedding (ridden by Eddie Harty) in 1969 and then again in 1989 with Little Polveir (Jimmy Frost).

He won the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham with Beech Road (Richard Guest) in 1989 and again in 1991 with Morley Street (Jimmy Frost).  He also won the Cheltenham Gold Cup with Cool Ground (Adrian Maguire) in 1992.  And so he became one of the few trainers to have won all three of these great races.

Morley Street was the best horse he ever trained winning the Breeders Cup Chase twice in the USA and being voted American Champion Steeplechaser of the Year in America in 1990 and 1991.

Toby always enjoyed racing politics and played a big part in it for many years.  He virtually founded the National Trainer`s Federation and was its Chairman for many years.  After he retired from training he served on the British Horseracing Board for several years and was awarded the O.B.E. for his services to Racing in 2011.  He was elected an Honorary Member of the Jockey Club in 2006.

Toby Balding was a great supporter of young jockeys and helped both A.P. McCoy and Adrian Maguire on their way to successful careers.  When Toby Balding died the Daily Telegraph tweeted the news with a photo of McCoy and Balding – and AP added his own tribute:

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Bonita Stables: Ogbourne Maizey's new racing trainer looks ahead

Written by Tony Millett on 11 August 2016.

Coming up the new all-weather gallop The summer jumps season has been good for trainer Emma Lavelle as she settles in to Ogbourne Maizey's Bonita Yard.  Her last ten entries have produced five winners.  She told Marlborough.News: "They've been running fantastically well - it's great.  They like the Wiltshire air!"

Emma Lavelle Racing moved from her well-established Hampshire yard and all her owners have come with her to Ogbourne Maizey.  Even the most locally based of her syndicates have followed her to Wiltshire.

A fifty per cent strike rate is certainly a good omen for the coming jump season.  The first placed horses were Celtic Passion (Uttoxeter), Mr Mountain (Newton Abbot) and Casino Markets Worcester).  And at Worcester today (Thursday, August 11) Celtic Passion came home in third place.

The yard has some new young horses now coming up to strength and she is looking ahead to the coming jumps season with some excitement.  That part of the Marlborough downs now has three top-flight jump trainers almost it seems within hailing distance of each other: Neil King, Emma Lavelle and led by Alan King.  It will be interesting to see how the competition between them develops.

Emma Lavelle moved to the Bonita yard formerly owned by Peter Makin earlier this year and has been giving it a major overall and expansion. She has fifty-two horses there at present with ten more still to come in.

One of the two new stable blocks The new & old horse walkers After exercise: Mythical Legend gets a wash down in the new 'showers'

Both the new stable blocks are fully in use.  The new eight-berth horse walker is in use - as well as the existing six berth walker.  There is a new warm-up ring.

On the way home from the gallopHer horses now have not only the incomparable miles of grass gallops on top of the downs, they also have a four-and-a-half furlong all-weather gallop using carpet fibre. 

It has a steep climb and, as one rider said, from the top there is a truly great view over the downs.

A large empty space marks only major outstanding development at the yard:  the arrival of the pre-built office unit.  This will be installed soon - complete with a kitchen that will be welcomed by early morning riders and stable staff alike.

Leading out the morning's last lot to exercise was Mythical Legend - a five-year-old chestnut mare who came second when she ran in May this year in a flat race for mares at Bangor-on-Dee.

Assistant trainer Barry Fenton was riding Unnamed Oscar - a four year-old which he reported had settled down well and ran really steadily.

Bonita's bottom yard has been mothballed for the present.  But two new houses being built there will be ready for staff to occupy within the next couple of weeks.

For a before and after look at the yard you can catch the before here.

The all-weather gallop - with the downs beyond

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Bring on the beetroot! Sir Mark Todd and Keyflow prepare for Olympic year

Written by Tony Millett on 14 December 2015.

Sir Mark Todd - and friendIt may be the off-season for eventing in Britain, but it's a very busy time for Sir Mark Todd - a founding director of the Marlborough-based equine feed company Keyflow, technical adviser to the Brazilian national team and, of course, a long serving stalwart of New Zealand's national team - with six Olympic Games and two gold medals to his credit.

He is recently back from one of his visits to Brazil to advise at their 3* qualifying competition for the Olympics.  And he is back too from Cornwall where Keyflow launched its new feed product with the eye-catching name Pink Mash - more of which later.

When Marlborough News Online visited Sir Mark's Badgerstown headquarters on the edge of the Marlborough Downs, it was blowing a gale and he was a bit worried about his horses crossing the channel on their way to the Geneva Horse Show for Saturday evening's Rolex indoor cross country competition.

Sir Mark moved to Badgerstown immediately after the 2012 London Games - and he loves it there.  It's good for transport links and is in wide open country - space for grass and all-weather gallops and a cross country course.

Sir Mark invested in Keyflow Feeds when it was first set up by fellow New Zealander Cam Price three years ago to provide a 'super-premium' range of feeds and supplements designed by world renowned equine nutritionists.  "Nutrition", Sir Mark says, "is a big part of high performance horses."

"There has to be a reason to change from one brand to another" and he explains how Cam Price visits all areas of the country advising people on nutrition - and putting forward the technical details of Keyflow's way to improve a horse's long-term health and performance.

Sir Mark in his feed store of Keyflow productsSpecialising in feed and supplements for sporting horses, Keyflow has Key Riders who support the brand:  Sir Mark and his New Zealand compatriots Jonelle and Tim Price, with Canadian star Rebecca Howard represent the eventing world.  And from show jumping Keyflow has the Whitaker Brothers (John and Michael) with Jack Whitaker (Michael's son) and Yorkshire's Ria Scott - all British riders.

Another joint enterprise with Keyflow is The Mark Todd Bridging the Gap scholarship scheme.  It is run by British Eventing with the support of the Mark Todd Collection (his horse equipment and clothing brand) and Keyflow.  The scheme helps riders moving towards Advanced/2* eventing level or towards a more established 3* level - there is no particular age limit.  

The scheme has experienced trainers - Jill Watson and Lizzel Winter - and applicants attend a series of training days.  The latest winner was Tim Cheffings from Tiverton.  He's receiving a mentoring programme, a year's supply of Keyflow Feeds and goods from the Mark Todd Collection.

Sir Mark told Marlborough News Online: "It gives them a boost and a leg up.  It's an expensive and tough sport to get into - this is a way for us to put something back into the sport over here."

Sir Mark's work with the Brazilian eventing team began after the last Olympics.  The home team wanted to put on a good show for the Rio crowds - and some of the leading Brazilian riders have spent time at Badgerstown.   

Eventing is quite a new and small-scale sport in Brazil.  Competitions can have as few as nine entrants.  And - like many other eventing teams - as the Games approach they will be at the mercy of injured or non-performing horses.

The outlook for both British and New Zealand Olympic teams is fairly open.  Both teams have key riders recovering from serious injuries: Wiliam Fox-Pitt for Britain and Andrew Nicholson for New Zealand.

Pink MashKeyflow riders feature well in the international rankings list.  The current rankings name Tim Price as third in the world with Sir Mark at sixth position.
Kewflow have been expanding fast this year.  Sir Mark says they can only just keep pace with the orders.  They are working hard to expand their network of stockists so people can buy their feeds quickly and easily, all over the country.

Which brings us to the new and innovative Pink Mash with its beetroot and super fibre.  It is specially aimed at maintaining a horse's healthy hind gut which is critical for health and performance.  It soaks in 5-10 minutes and can be used as a partial replacement for hay or forage.

Sir Mark is 'very excited about it':  "It's new, it's different and it's a very good product."   You can ask Keyflow for a free sample.

And the 55th Concours Hippique International de Geneva?  Sir Mark on his 14-year-old grey gelding Landvision came tenth out of the nineteen international riders.  And not too far behind was Brazil's Ruy Fonesca on Korsica in fourteenth place.

Sir Mark raises his eyebrows:  "I can't believe the London Olympics were nearly four years ago.  And the next eight months to Rio will fly by!"

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