Year-In-Review 2023
Overview
The Claymore Racing journey began on May 19th, 2023, in the sales ring at Cheltenham, where King Of Answers was purchased. From there, we have introduced both Blow The Budget and Santapietra, two lovely mares who have joined King Of Answers up in Milnathort at Lucinda Russell Racing. 2023 was a year full of challenges, sorting issues, and learning as I go. The year has been tainted by the constant problems with our old website, including basket duplication, newsletter problems, and generally a poor quality website, which has lowered the experience for our owners. The season-ending injury that King Of Answers picked up following his run at Bangor furthered our early problems and bad luck. However, we have had to learn from them and adapt, and we have finally sorted out all the problems, and it is time to kick on. The past two months, we have worked tirelessly on this new website, and we have worked alongside The Racing Manager to really increase the ownership experience with Claymore Racing and to provide our owners with a seamless racing experience. For those who have constantly stuck by us through the early teething problems to this point, thank you. We hope this year will bring lots of fun memories on the racecourse as we strive to compete at the top level of the sport in those big Saturday races while building a community along the way. You can read about about our 2024 roster below, which we aim to expand over the year, by clicking on the plus icons. We appreciate your ongoing support and look forward to a successful 2024 together!
Our roster for 2024…
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Santapietra is a 5-year-old bay filly by the popular sire Flemensfirth and a first foal by a dual-winning mare, Pietralunga, who won on the flat turf in France before winning over hurdles in Ireland. Santapietra, our latest recruit, was from the Tattersalls Cheltenham November Sale 2023. She was sold by Ballyboy Stables, who are based in Co. Wexford and have produced some lovely types. Recent Ballyboy graduates include Grangeclare West, An Tobar, and Croke Park. We like buying from Ireland due to the higher quality and more competitive point-to-points. Santa finished 2nd (beaten by a neck) in her second of two point-to-points on the 12th of November, 2023, at Knockmullen. Not only did she almost win, but she also beat 3rd place by 15 lengths! The winner of the point-to-point has since been sold to Ben Case for £55,000. Santa will make her debut under rules in February 2024 in either a bumper or novice hurdle. She is progressing very nicely at home and has a great attitude. She looks an exciting prospect for her owners.
There are still shares available in this lovely mare, and now is the time to get involved ahead of her debut!
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Following King's injury, we introduced Blow The Budget as a short-term replacement while he was out injured before being set up in her own syndicate. On Blow The Budget's first run for us at Kelso on November 29th, 2023, she went off as a 12/1 outsider and ran her heart out to finish a brilliant 3rd, 3/4L behind 2nd in tough conditions! Blow The Budget showed us that she can knuckle down and fight her way to the front. There were plenty of positives to take from that run. The winner, Wyenot, is 2/2 over hurdles with a combined winning distance of 23 lengths while carrying a 7lb penalty. She is showing to be an above-average filly.
On Wednesday the 20th of December, 2023, Blow The Budget had her second run in the Claymore Racing colours. She finished fifth after jumping the last just off the leaders and looking like she was in a winning position. To be honest, it was a slightly disappointing run following such a positive first run. However, she was only 4 and 1/2L behind the eventual winner, Ozzy Cosmos, as opposed to Kelso, where she was 20L behind the winner, WyeNot.
Blow The Budget has received a rating of 97 over hurdles and, at the time of writing, is expected to have her third run for us very soon. She is yet to have a run in her ideal conditions, with her first run being in snowy conditions on unsuitable ground at Kelso, and she just didn't fire in a slightly disappointing run on her second start. We think she needs more of a stamina test in order to finish her races strongly. She is knocking on the door of that first win!
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King made his debut under rules on the 4th of October 2023, at Bangor-on-Dee in a maiden bumper, where he finished 3rd. He ran a really positive race, being hampered and pushed out at the start to finish third, staying on past the post, showing good stamina!
Following this run, King picked up a season-ending injury where the tendon fibres just started to break down. This was caught early and isn't serious; however, Lucinda wanted to be careful and, if anything, give him more time off, as he was always bought to be a staying chaser in time, so there was no point rushing him through his recovery to run in another bumper this spring. As disappointing as this was for all owners, horse welfare is paramount. King is now into his third month of recovery and is progressing very nicely at home. He is currently on the walker twice a day for 30 minutes and is spending time in the field. King will have his novice hurdle campaign in the upcoming 2024–25 season, starting this May!
The form of his bumper has since been franked, with the second-placed Panhandle Slim finishing second on his debut over hurdles at Bangor-on-Dee behind Olly Murphy’s Act Of Authority, who is currently 2/3 over hurdles. Panhandle Slim then went and won a 2m 4f novice hurdle at Sedgefield on the 26th of December by 1 and 1/4 lengths. The winner of the bumper, Cannock Park, has been the real eyecatcher. Following the Bangor bumper, he went straight to the Cheltenham November meeting, where we won the 2m maiden hurdle at odds of 15/2, beating the favourite, The Kemble Brewery, who won a bumper at Cheltenham in October by 2 and 1/4 lengths. This impressive victory led to a run in the Grade 1 Formby hurdle at Aintree (formerly the Tolworth hurdle), where at 40/1 he came 3rd to Jango Baie, an exciting prospect for Nicky Henderson, who is unbeaten over hurdles. Second in this Grade 1 was Favour and Fortune, who prior to Aintree had won both his hurdle starts, which included a 13-length victory at Hereford. Among those that finished behind Cannock Park were Kamsinas, a Grade 2 winner over hurdles and Florida Dreams, winner of the Grade 2 bumper at Aintree on National day.
I’m sure I can speak for everyone when I say we can’t wait to be back cheering on King, a horse who has shown ability and should kick on over hurdles before going chasing.
