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29th
January, 2010 Lucky Sunny went off to Cheltenham today as he sells at the Brightwells sale after racing tomorrow. If he doesn't fetch enough, he will be coming back to Adlestrop. We schooled several horses this morning with Wayne Hutchinson, Warren Marston, Sean Quinlan and Gerard Tumelty doing all the work. All went to plan and even Warren Marston was happy. Today's horse in focus, is Bobby Donald. Bobby won a point to point in Ireland and is named after his former owner John Donald's father, who sadly passed away but who was responsible for John gaining his gambling habit. Having shown promise over hurdles and narrowly being touched off at Plumpton, there is no better jumper of a steeplechase fence and Choc Thornton who has ridden him in his last two races, loves him. He will be winning over three miles on better ground and his new owners, Linda, Emma and Les Tomlin who live locally in Moreton in Marsh are great fun and should be having a few celebratory drinks before the season is out. Les used to work in the music business and actually had Reg Dwight as his tea boy (Elton John) and was The Village People's manager for a while. Les has promised to do the dance routine in the winners enclosure when Bobby wins.
I didn't know there were so many experts on vacuums. This really has become a contentious issue and there have been many pleas not to buy certain models, so we will probably end up with a Henry Dyson. Jo was very exciting coming to work as there were a few birds on our solitary fat ball this morning. When I asked Jo what there were, she said “wagtaily type things,” Bill Oddie is forgiven. We had a visit from the Hopsons this morning who have a share in Ballykelly. Brian and I have similar political views. Following the story in the papers yesterday that you are not allowed to advertise for ‘reliable' staff and also that fathers now get six months paternity leave, we believe it time to put an end to this ridiculous thing called democracy and have a benign dictatorship, run solely by me. We have made more entries this morning but the ground is probably still too soft for most of ours. We have declared Pak Jack for the Great Yorkshire (or whatever it's called these days) at Doncaster on Saturday, in the hope that the ground will be riding better there than anywhere else at present. There are twenty two runners but there are not many other options for him at the moment. It has been suggested that we focus on a different horse in the yard each day, so we are starting with, in alphabetical order, Ballykelly. Ballykelly was bought having won a point to point in Ireland and has won a bumper and a novice hurdle for us. He is soon to go chasing and would have run earlier if he hadn't fractured his pelvis last year, schooling over the open ditch at home. Owned by the six members of the Nut Club Partnership, he will make his chasing debut soon and loves to be up with the pace on better ground. His nickname at home is BK and if he was human would probably present Supermarket Sweep.
My anorak knowledge of seventies flat racing came into play and for once the team gelled well. Hamner's payment of a bottle of red wine was soon consumed and despite this, he still remembers the last round. It's tradition that we take Hamner back to his home outside Wantage, where we sat drinking wine from our trophy whilst Hamner amused us with his stories of the good old times. He introduced us to his cat, who he said made Harold Shipman look like a selling plater. Gordy was in good form yesterday as he had 36 points on Pop Master and only got one wrong. That being ‘what was Lenny Kravitz's first number one single.' Clarkson would like to know what is the most points blog readers have got on Ken Bruces's Radio 2 show. Pleased to report that I'm a ‘daddy' once again. Yesterday morning, we had a colt foal by Bahamian Bounty out of Snakes Head, a mare I share with Lyn Blackman and David Bladon who are members of the Dozen Dreamers. As Lyn and David are accountants, we are all delighted that a colt foal appeared as a chesnut filly would probably fetch zilch at this years foal sales. Tiger Line ran well in the mares only novice hurdle yesterday despite being nearly brought down at the first. She looks like a tough mare who will win over hurdles for us and is a lot more promising than the syndicate's previous horse, Tremolo, who if he was human would live off every benefit going. The horses worked well this morning. Pak Jack looks in good form and is entered in the Great Yorkshire Chase at Doncaster on Saturday. We have a number of entries at Uttoxeter on Saturday. Is there a vacuum cleaner out there that anyone recommends, we have heard horror stories about Henrys, Hettys, Dysons, you name it. I have an inclination to buy a dustpan and brush instead.
I was joined by Warren Marston and Paddy Brennan, regular visitors to Barnsy's house in Oddington. Barnsy is a surprisingly good cook put down to years of practice due to the fact he is so old. Paddy does not cook but is a mean washer upper, in fact he is mean at most things. Warren 's contribution to the evening was to be the first to leave. All went well on the gallops this morning. I interviewed a girl for a job. I always ask in an interview what makes them laugh, as I believe you have to have a sense of humour to work in horseracing. A reply of The Office, goes down very well but if their answers are anything to do with American comedy, I show them the door. We have started making a few entries now that the ground looks as though it is drying up a bit. Temoin had one of his days yesterday when he was not in the mood. Hopefully the handicapper will drop him a few pounds to get him in a lower division. When he retires, we think he should take over from Jeremy Paxman on University Challenge. We were discussing what we would put on our gravestones recently. As a public speaker, I decided I would like put on ‘not the first time I have died.' I have had feedback over vacuums from many of you and it looks as though Dyson is the most popular. The main reason being that unlike the WI, they don't contain bags.
Every month on a Sunday evening The Queens Head at Stow hold a quiz. ‘The Adlestroppers' have been runners up in the past up against such stiff opposition as Alastair Down and Sybil Ruscoe. However last night's quiz questions were too obscure for our team and we finished mid division. We did manage to beat Queens Head regulars Tim Egar and Uncle Bill who is now I believe around 96. He is Jenny Mould's father, Jenny was a great supporter of ours and you can see where she got her spirit from. I went to Kempton yesterday to see Underworld Dandy run. We were pleased with his effort in first time blinkers and he should be winning for one of our longest standing owners, John Mills. I used to look after John's horses at Graham Thorner's when I first started in racing. Graham was there yesterday to talk about the good old days. There has been a fair bit of feed back about the blog. Jeff McCarthy has warned us off ‘Henrys' or ‘Hettys' as he used his wife's this week and he wanted to shoot it. Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. Jockeys agent Chris Broad, thinks the blog is s***t. So I pointed out that he has got something in common with it. Jo is threatening to take the nuts home as there seems very little interest in them. I pointed out that most birds in Adlestrop are ungrateful.
The horses seem in good form after their snow break and we worked a few more this morning. We just need the ground to dry out a bit as most of ours don't want it bottomless. We had Mike and Pauline Kelly here for second lot to watch their horse Ballykelly (no relation) do a bit of work with his handbag. There is still a stewards enquiry over the fat balls. We think Whitey has nicked them but Whitey thinks I have eaten them. This saga could go on and on. I am convinced there are more peanuts in the holder today than there were yesterday. There is a robin hanging around, apparently they keep all the other birds away, if Gordy was a bird I think he would be a robin. Owner Jan Hurst says she knows Sir Terence Leahy, the boss of Tescos and promises to have a word. Hopefully ‘Higher Toller Hussain' the manageress in Stow on the Wold will get her comeuppance. There have been several offers from owners to bring up some lager for our Indian friends, so that may solve the problem.
Tonight could be a big night as our new sponsors, Martin and Sue Harvey of Tori Global, have invited Jo and her boyfriend Phil, myself and neighbour Eric to the Blockley Conservative Club Annual Quiz. Jo has been watching Egg Heads all week and even recorded it last night. Sadly she watched it twice and still got some answers wrong. Interestingly Eric never watches Egg Heads, but looks like one. As the result of the competition will probably not make the Sunday papers, we will let you know how we get on.
Luckily it has been so wet, Gordy's phone has got soaked and he has not been able to use in on horseback. I pointed out to the staff how clean my land rover was this morning in all this rain – they were not impressed. Since we have notified people we have a blog, we have had a fair few hits and emails. My old school mate Rossie, would like you to be informed that he had his first body scan at an airport. Wouldn't want to be on airport security with him about. My old friend, Brian Duckett popped in this morning for first and second lot. It was Brian and I that first had the idea of ‘The Adlestrop Club' and we were discussing the way forward for it this morning. Last night I took our Indian contingent to Tescos for their shopping. They wanted to buy eight tins of lager but did not have any ID on them, so I offered to buy it for them but some bossy bitch said I couldn't. Then I proceeded to try and buy some lager myself to give to them but she said I wasn't allowed to as I was going to give it to them. I was going to point out how unattractive she was and that she was racist but I thought I'd leave it. If anyone knows Sir Terence Leahy, please notify him.
We schooled for the first time in weeks this morning and Warren Marston and Sean Quinlan were on duty. All went to plan and we look ready to go with runners next week. I have had a very interesting afternoon with a group of vets. The technical term for this is a ‘rag bag.' The rag bag included, ‘Mr Wind' himself, Geoff Lane who is the world's expert on wind problems in horses, Richard Tyler and Liam Kearns. They were trialling a new endoscope machine which is attached to a horse as it gallops along and we gave permission for our gallop to be used. It was a fascinating afternoon talking about the importance of wind problems in horses and this machine looks like definite progress is being made in diagnosis.
STOP PRESS We have a tit on the nuts!
A robin has been on the peanuts which is unusual for a robin. At 10.43 in the Big Brother household, Mark White smiled because one of the staff slipped over and we are thinking about ringing Crime Stoppers. We have had a morning of enthusiastic owners and David Mason. All discussing what an entertaining evening last Sunday night was, with Francome, Pitman and co. Made a couple of entries for Leicester on Tuesday but race planning is so bad, they don't frame them for normal horses. I have worked with some of them that work at race planning and I am not surprised by their decisions. White,
Clarkson and Phillips have been discussing last night's Manchester
derby and we think the referee should be the next senior handicapper,
as obviously he is used to making bad decisions.
Still can't find the fat balls which have been replaced by peanuts, but still no birds. It was a work morning this morning with threatened snow for tomorrow, the first one for a few weeks. The horses don't seem to have lost much fitness and we will be making entries for next week with the hope the ground is going to dry up. Owners Les Tomlin and David Simons have been here for second and third lot and have discovered how to save the world in between lots. I
am off the lunch with Les and Linda Tomlin and Barnsy if he
gets up in time. We are going to the Chequers at Churchill which
is run by Assumpta, the Mother Theresa of Chipping Norton.
The Holts came down to see their mare, Harriet Bolt, no relation to Usain yet but has time on her side. I took them for lunch at The Fox in Oddington. In the evening I went for an early drink with our Landlord, The Lord Leigh, discussing all subjects while he downed some pink stuff. Sunday was a big day with the Friends of Adlestrop coming for lunch in the best village hall in the country. The Friends of Adlestrop include a group of owners who donate to good causes. In the evening, we had the Adlestrop Club's January event, which was one of the best ever. A ‘Winters Evening' with Richard Pitman, John Francome and Brian Delany discussing the good old days of Fred Winter. All three were amazingly entertaining and chatted on without prompting for a couple of hours to the fascination of a packed village hall. Monday, still no phone and thanks to the blog, someone has stolen the fat balls. Don't think it was the birds unless there is an albatross about. Photographer David Betteridge took some new photos for the website which will hopefully be uploaded soon.
Have just spoken to Francome, who has phoned over this ridiculous song on page three of the Racing Post with the revamped words to, ‘ Down Town .' We had a laugh over changing the words even further for his Sun column tomorrow. We have been preparing for Sunday's ‘Winter's Evening' for the Adlestrop Club. R. Pitman and J. Francome are coming along to talk about the good old days of F. T. Winter. We also have a ‘Friends Of Adlestrop' lunch on Sunday. Jemima (Jim Bob) is making a lasagne. Apparently her lasagnes are fantastic although I have never eaten anything I don't like in my life, so I wouldn't be the best judge. Matthew Delahooke has just dropped off Great Hero. He looks more and more like Dudley Moore every day.
Tragic news at Adlestrop Stables is that Gordy has lost his mobile phone. Anyone that knows him well will know his mobile is like a third ear. Having lost it last week, he has ordered a new one and one of the benefits of the snow is that it has not arrived yet. To see him in such distress is always comforting for all those that work with him. Being a neighbourly chap, I took Barnsy to the Fox at Oddington last night as he was unable to get out of his drive due to arthritis and laziness. Duly had the bar to ourselves along with neighbours, Simon Alvin and Tim Eagar. Decided to take Barnsy home rather than let him walk, as I thought he might fall over and break his leg. Barnsy responded that he wouldn't mind doing so as a visit to hospital would ease the boredom. Winter tip. The Phillips family are full of winter tips as they have a penchant for hardship. Wear some old socks over your wellingtons, or if you are really rich wear some new socks. This keeps better grip and keeps your toes warmer. If you find this embarrassing, wear a big woolly hat over face. Fat ball update - still no birds.
Welcome to Phillips' daily blog. I have been under pressure for a long time to do this. As many of you will know, I am the least computer literate human being in the world, however all those interested in an insight into the daily running and goings on of Adlestrop Stables, here we go. We have finally got on the gallop this morning doing some steady cantering. Will Seely, my pupil assistant and general dogs body has devoted his life the gallop over the last week and thanks to borrowing some machinery from local farmers, we have managed to make the surface safe for cantering. Up until now, the horses have been kept on the go but trotting only. It's amazing how after a freeze up the horses run pretty well and on the whole, the horses enjoy the snow and a break in exercise. Vet Tom Campbell popped in this morning to vet Lucky Sunny, who has been entered in the Brightwells Cheltenham Sale on the 30 th January. All seems fine with him and the sale entry gives us an opportunity to dissolve the partnership as part owner, Fred Cooke bought Lucky Sunny as an investment. Tom's main interest whilst on the gallop was to see how close we could get to getting Gordon Clarkson to be unseated from his horse. Just the slight revving of the engine can cause Clarkson to get a bit twitchy and although I was egged on by the said vet, Clarkson stayed in position. As I pointed out to Tom, physics are able to keep Clarkson in position due to weight, length of leg and gravity. Lunch with Les and Linda Tomlin has been called off due to the overnight snow. Les, Linda and daughter Emma own Bobby Donald and live locally in Moreton in Marsh and we take it in turns to buy lunch for each other. This time it was my turn to take them out and I was going to take them to the Chequers at Churchill, run by the excellent Assumpta, however snow has stopped play. My secretary Jo has been in a bad mood all morning as the local birds are yet to find her recently purchased ‘fat ball' holder. It is positioned at the back of our office and will hopefully give her something to look at while she is thinking of things to do. For those of you who are interested, it was Beanie's (Jo's cocker spaniel) third birthday yesterday. I don't think Beanie had any idea that it was her birthday, as she is spoilt everyday. However I think she had sardines for her lunch as a special treat. Eustace, if you are reading this Mark says the pancakes were wonderful, thank you very much.
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Easily
his most disappointing answer was when attempting to name American
states beginning with ‘M', he came up with the answer, ‘ New
England .' The phrase ‘deaf and stupid' comes to mind. However
good fun was had by all although some people in the room would
make you want to vote labour. 
As
ever there is an argument in the office over the colour of purchases.
We need a new vacuum cleaner - I want a green ‘Henry', Jo unsurprisingly
fancies a pink ‘Hetty.' Not being a fan of the colour pink,
the only reason we have a pink lap top is because it was cheaper.
Apparently Hetty is £2.50 cheaper than Henry. The decision
could be a close call. 
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