7 winners last month was a reasonable haul. Furthermore we passed 50 winners for the season, and won a Listed race. 3 year old Poyle Judy won for the third time this year, in a 1 mile claimer at Pontefract on 3rd October under Silvestre de Sousa. Despite instructing him to be positive on her, he held her up and got up in the dying strides! We employ 10 Brazilians here, maybe I should get one of them to translate next time. She was in to be claimed for £10,000, but went to the Horses In Training Sale and made £11,000. 4 year old filly Countess Comet won on the same day at Windsor over 12 furlongs under Jim Crowley. She was badly handicapped for most of her life, due to her ability to run well once in every 4 runs. But she came good a second time for owner / breeder Lady Cobham. She too went to the Horses In Training Sale and was bought by NH trainer Chris Bealby for £21,000. 3 year old Hayaku who is talented but had frustrated us, got off the mark on 10th October at Windsor under Richard Kingscote. She made all in blinkers, and looked as though she might have turned a corner. We will aim her for a Listed race in Deauville in December. 2 year old filly Lexington Pearl won on debut over 7 furlongs at Kempton under Jim Crowley. With her US pedigree (by Elusive Quality), she is now going to run at Woodbine on 13th November in a Can$150,000 Stakes race. Afterwards she will transfer to Maryland based Graham Motion for the rest of her career. 3 year old Poyle Punch won for the second time this year in an 8 furlong claimer at Kempton on 19th October. Unfortunately he wasn’t claimed at £16,000 – as he made £8000 a week later at the Horses In Training Sale. A really genuine horse, he is rather fragile – I hope he gets more resilient with age. 2 year old filly Rhagori won on her third start, at Lingfield on 27th October over 7 furlongs. Out of a Halling mare who got better with time, I’m hopeful that she will be another success story for her sire Exceed and Excel. We doubled on the day with Charleston Lady winning the Listed River Eden under a fine hold up ride from Jim Crowley. She will now go to the December Sale. By Hurricane Run out of a Kingmambo mare, she should have plenty of fans – not least the Japanese, as she is a half sister to a Group 3 winner there. We will have a few to run through the winter here. We also have Moon Pearl destined for Dubai, and various runners in Listed races in France. We took 17 horses to Newmarket Sales last week, sold 13 and bought one….’Maverik’ who will be aimed at a couple of mile races in St Moritz next February. We had a ball trying last year; this year we should have a better idea of how to get competitive. We are building a new barn in the New Year. Much smaller at 10-12 boxes, it will enable us to quarantine horses that go down with infections, as well as acting as a holding barn for new arrivals. The 5 furlong woodchip gallop will be ‘topped up’ with new surface next week, and we will complete the renovations to the turf gallops by spring next year.