We’ve a couple of weeks to catch up on with the blog. Although it’s been fairly quiet on the racing front, we’ve still had some nice wins and promising trials.

Druids Busy Man delighted us with his 27.95 spin at Swindon on the 17th December and he really does look a special talent.

The latest Terminator pups arrived from Mike Burton and they are a super looking litter. We have all 6 of the Taylors Sky pups and they have settled in very well. Another couple of our Ballymac Vic x Dorotas Star litter arrived following their schooling and also settled in well.

We had a good night at Romford on the 20th as we returned with a couple of winners. Ballydorgan Des showed terrific pace up to take control of his sprint open and won in great style. Des is only a young dog and could be a really nice type next year. I’ve Got Gears pinged the lids to lead all the way in her maiden open and is another youngster who could improve plenty over the coming months.

Boxing Day proved a good meeting at Monmore as we came back with a couple of winners from our 5 runners. Forest Beaux looked back to her best following an Achilles tendon problem as she won her A2 in great style. Bit View Shannon has been running really well of late and she added another A2 to her CV as she led all the way. These would prove to be our last winners of 2019 as we came home empty handed from Romford and Monmore at the weekend.

Bull Run Java (15.44), Bull Run Blinder (15.60) and Lasting Legend (15.79) all moved well in their sprint trials before racing Saturday evening.

Our 2018 English Oaks heroine Ravenswood Flo left the kennel on Saturday to begin her new life as a pet with her owners Stephen and Sharon Harvey. We’ll never forgot the great thrill Flo gave us all on that memorable night at Swindon as she led home kennel mate, Magical Vera for a memorable 1-2 in the final. Flo was also a real kennel favourite and has the most loving and mischievous personality. Our thanks go to Paddy and Margaret Kehoe at the Forest kennels for selling her to us.

We ended the year with 103 winners at Monmore and a top winning percentage of nearly 21% from our first full year with graded runners at our new home. On the open race scene we finished with 146 winners and a 23% strike rate and made it into the top 6 for the 6th year running.

We were never likely to match what was an incredible 2018 but looking back on 2019 I think we’ve had another super year. In a solid last few months where we won our 3rd English Oaks title, we also added the Angel of the North and Brighton Belle to the collection. Throw into that the Cat one Maiden Derby at Henlow, an English Derby 4th, twenty one Cat 3 successes and a puppy classic runner-up it makes for a very pleasing set of results.

Looking forward to 2020 I think we may have a fairly gradual start to the year as we’ve mainly a very young kennel of dogs and they’ll take time to come through the ranks while a few of our more existing open race stars won’t be up and running too early in the year.

Lastly, I’d like to wish everyone a very happy and successful 2020.