Weeks 1 - 8 Roundup

In a change to last seasons format, we will be reporting on a less regular basis but hopefully on a schedule of a report every 8 PF racing weeks (or 4 real ones).

Weeks 1-2

Our start to this season started well with results in the first two weeks reading 13-1-2-1-2 for a total purse of $76,150. The first win was gained at Moonee Valley by Ms Original a 3yr old filly (Kendane x Original) bred by Golden Acres who had finished runner up twice last season and showed that she had definately trained on. The above photo is her returning to the horse box following her fine victory.

Weeks 3-4

The next weeks racing continued to please us with NewMoonOnMonday (Lonhro x Moon Dragon) winning the Canadian Turf Hcp over 9f turf and this win has us thinking he could be a possible English 2000 Guineas horse and as such will be trained for that. There were a couple of seconds to improve our stats to 21-2-4-2-3 $189,900.

Weeks 5-6

Ms Original was sent out again in a test of stamina (all her previous races being over less than 6f) and she won again over 7f at Royal Randwick and earnt herself a crack at the Australian Guineas. Reichenbach Falls (2yr old Troll Tower x Case Closed) stunned the crowd with his debut on a racecourse with a nice win over 9f on dirt. There is a quite confidence in the stable behind him and he may be restricted in runs this season with a possbile crack at the Breeders Cup Juvenile at the end of the season. A few other placed efforts from our runners now meant we had season stats of 31-4-4-4-4 $320,600.

Weeks 7-8

This week we were treated to another double win when Ordinary World (3yr old Memcay x Spectacular Wiggle and therefore a half brother to stable star Ab-Daledigaeth) and Planet Earth (3yr old filly by the uber sire Missy's Bridle x Valley of Roses) although it was tempered slightly when she returned back to the stable and was found to be sore. Dangold ran another good race to be 2nd and with the others making enough effort it now means our stable is posting stats of 42-6-5-4-8 $435,575.

Compared to last year we are well ahead of our target to beat 17 wins and grab that elusive G1 victory that eluded us last year.

Killer on the move..... Royalty replaces him

It was announced this week that the first foal from our first millionaress, Dancing Delaware, sired by War Machine was purchased by Otsego Farms in a deal said to be worth in excess of $500,000 but the exact details have been kept private at the request of both parties. Whilst we orignally swore never to sell this stunning first born colt, we finally gave in to Jim Webber's persistance and allowed him to take the colt as we felt that his future race career would be best served away from the confines of Bally Doyle.

Killer's lass was heartbroken to say the least and even now she still keeps looking towards his empty stall which will always bear the nameplate "A View To A Kill (War Machine x Dancing Delaware) 2008 colt" but it is hoped that as soon as her yearling filly by A Bus (named Clashofthetitans) is ready to start training, she will reside here.

There was not much time to contemplate the loss to the stables with the departure of Killer as our bloodstock adviser called up in excitement from the Woodbury Stables draft and reported that he had managed to secure the 4yr old filly Fierce Royalty for a very reasonable sum. This filly despite being 4yr olds has only had two life time starts, with a race record of 2-0-1-0 $15,000 and it is hoped that this lack of mileage will mean that she has an extended career beyond this season. However, we were keen to purchase this filly as she is well bred beyond belief, being a half sister to the multi G1 stayer Braveheart who earnt over $10mill in his racing career and being sired by Majestic Son (Snowbank Farms) who won several G1s including the Santa Anita Handicap and being placed in several other Group races including the Hong Kong Mile and Breeders Cup Mile - all at 4. The plan is to let her aclimatise (although due to the proximity of Woodbury Stables this involved vanning her less then 40miles!) and getting her running this weekend. Her training had not been broken whilst she was being sold.

What Price Love?

As some of you may have been aware, I sadly lost my beloved Golden Retriever, Solo, last year to cancer and have been pretty inconsolable since. I then plucked up some courage and asked a very kindly person (who at this moment will remain nameless but they know who they are) if they wouldn't mind doing a drawing of my loved one and his other mistress, Lady the cat. To my delight they agreed and above is the nearly completed masterpeice. OK - so its never going to hang in the National Portrait Gallery but to me its utterly priceless. It captures both their essesnces and spirits and to me thats more than I could ever have hoped for.

It has luckily managed to take my mind off the up and coming Breeders Cup races in which I will be sending out Ab-D for her last ever run in the black and white of Bally Doyle. Whilst its a sad day for all concerned, we cannot wait to see her babies run (hopefully forward but we will love them all the same if they go the other way!). We are also entering a couple of juveniles which is against the norm for us but nothing ventured as they say... So come the weekend A View to A Kill and Ordinary World will be lining up to take their chances. Just for once we have also said - what the heck and entered two further fillies, one in the Endurance where Wooden Rabbit will be hoping to keep up her fine record of placing in every race away from Shenandoah Downs and following her win last time out, Dangold will be competing in the ultra competitve Fillies & Mares Turf.

Whose to say any of them will return with a winners sash or placed money but at the end of the day if you dont enter them you just wont know.

There will be a review to follow for the last 4 racing weeks soon but at the moment we are just concentrating on our suitcase contents before we fly off next week to sunnier climes.

For want of a nail the horse was lost...........

A hot topic of conversation around the PF world currently are the proposals for the introduction of "season ending" and "career ending" injuries and needless to say that this has got the forum in a bit of tizz.

The suggestion is that any horse who incurs an injury over 20 days but less than 30 is considered to have sustained a "season ending" injury. This length of injury would indicate that the horse in question is either immature or reaching the end of its racing career and a long rest would be the best thing for it. Players are split between running with the minimum amount of rest or a set period no matter what the AR indicates. This stable has, on several occassions in the past, retired a horse mid season after it sustained an injury in excess of 25 days. This week we retired with immediate effect DANCESWITHWOLVES who sustained a 27 days inury but as the plan for her was to retire to the breeding shed at the end of the season, this retirement was merely bumped up a few weeks.

The second suggestion is that any horse sustaining an injury in excess of 30 days would be deemed to have suffered a "career ending" injury no matter what age they are. This is the suggestion that seems to have caused most furor. Stables are split again on whether to make the game more realistic and therefore have these injuries introduced (rather than merely give the horse the requisite number of rest days) should we just keep the game as "fantasy" as possible.

Its a personal thing and at this moment in time we are happy to go either way - ie introduce the season/career ending injuries or not, because as a stable rule all our horses are given at least 21 days rest no matter what their abilities.

In the long term though, I think that it will be necessary to bring in this rule as more and more players are running their horses with less rest and this is resulting in more frequent short term injuries but with the occassional long term thrown in. The percentage of injuries over 30 days is very minimal but the medium term (20-30 days) is getting more noticable especially with more new stables joining.

So there you have it - Bally Doyle's not quite definative answer but a subject that will be raised again soon no doubt!

(And a bonus prize for those who can quote the header correctly!)

Weeks 37-40

Apologies for the lack of commentary regarding our weekly results but things have been a bit hectic down here at the farm! We are already into the planning and finalisation of our breeding program and with the new legislation being bought into play regarding the foal no longer sharing its dam's stall for technical counting reasons, it took a little bit of time to sit down and work out that phew we were safe!

Back to the track and starting off with Weeks 37-38, we sent out 8 runners and rather disappointingly only got the one "on the board" result which was on relfection good going as it was a win for our homebred filly, Norwegian Blue. As had been decided prior to racing, if The Godfather and The Foggy One didnt show up in the top 3 then they would be placed for sale, and sadly this proved the case. There has been a lot of interest for these two guys and the last day of sale is 11th April - so keep bidding!

Moving swiftly onto Weeks 39-40 and this time from a shipment of 13 (unlucky you may say!), this resulted in one of our best overall set of results - 2 wins, 2 seconds, 2 thirds and spookily enough 2 fourths! The wins were courtesy of Hungrylikethewolf and New Moon on Monday (both 2yr olds!) and Ms Original managed to place herself just behind "Wolfie" (as is her want on the gallops). Other notables were the 3rd place for Three Gold Pieces returning after a long layoff (due mainly to lack of suitable races), Ab-D posted a fine 4th in the G1 Vosbrugh and Killer placed 4th in his first race away from Shenandoah Downs. So hopefully this is the start of good things! Sadly, Danceswithwolves pulled up sharply after the finish and the vets diagnosed a stress fracture to her front off fore which has resulted in her immediate retirement, although as she was due to retire at the end of the season its just put the date of transfer to the Stud Farm forward a few weeks.

So we are hopeful for a good showing this coming week when we will send out another 10 poor animals to earn their crust!

Significant Numbers

Are we all ready? Sitting comfortably with a stiff drink? Yes – ok lets go!

Highest PSR: Ab-Daledigaeth with a rating of 112 (and she only finished 2^nd!)

Lowest PSR: Embarassingly there is one and it was set by New Moon on Monday (who redememmed himself on his 2^nd run by getting a 3^rd place and a rating of 61)

Best Average PSR: Again this goes to Ab-Daledigaeth who averages 99 per run, closely followed by Rain Man who averages 98.3 per run and Two Sheckles who averages 95.8. It is interesting to note that these are all older horses and have had at least 5 runs this season.

Most Consistent PSR: Rain Man whose lowest score was 91 and has scored over 100 on three of his six runs.

Most Runs: Danceswithwolves and Norwegian Blue both having run 8 times so far.

Least Runs: Haunted, Notorious and Ordinary World each with one run. Although Haunted was sold on after that run and Notorious joined us mid season and has only run the once for us (but had run several times for his previous stable).

Total Average PSR Per Run: 73.2 (10,029 total divided by 137 runs)

And what does all this mean? Probably that I am an average player with average horses but who does consistently each season without impressing the judges, which suits us fine – nothing worse than having a stable that relies on ONE horse to get the money or has a stable full of non-achievers.

Results - Weeks 35-36

After a good set of results in Weeks 33/34, we wondered if it could continue and the answer was definately YES! A brief round up follows:

United - G2 Saratoga Breeders Cup 9f Dirt - 5th $0
Elidor - Darby Munro Stakes 6.5f Turf - 1st $30,000
Royal Ensign - Carbine Club Stakes 8f Turf - 5th $0
Hold Back The Rain - G1 Karrakatta Stakes 6f Turf - 10th $0
Gonewiththewind - G1 Haydock Park Sprint Cup 6f Turf - 4th $15,000
Dangold - G3 WA Champion Fillies Stakes 8f Turf - 1st $48,000
Volcan - G2 Del Mar Futurity 7f Dirt - 5th $0
New Moon on Monday - Maiden Stakes - 3rd $3,600
Unionofthesnake - G2 Summer Stakes - 7th $0

Summary - 9-2-0-1-1 $96,600

Overall a very good week - espcially with Dangold winning! Very complex filly doesnt show anything then suddenly it all comes toghether for a win!

Look out for next weeks round up and in between some pointless stats on our season!

Results - Weeks 33-34

Can you finish the next line of this song "Strut on a line, its discord and rhyme, I howl and I whine, I'm after you, mouth is alive, all running inside and I'm........"

Well heres a clue - its the name of a 2yr old colt from our barn who just won his first race and set a track record!

Not only that, can you name our other winner this week from the image above? Need another clue? Its not a 2yr old.

Overall we have had a great week and will go into more detail when we have more time!

Lets just say - this is probably one of our finest weeks of the season so far even if they arent G1 wins!

Results - Weeks 31-32

Frustratingly this week we sent 9 runners out and 4 returned with cheques which, on reflection was good although eerily, they all earnt $7,500! The shot above shows Ab-D coming late and fast to finish 3rd although you cant quite see her mid bob between Horse No 5 and the flashy chestnut on the rails.

In order to make up for the disappointment, we are sending out another large congingent next week - 15 in all coz one of them has to produce a win (right?!).

Open For Bookings

As we approach and quietly pass the halfway point of the racing season, many of our thoughts turn to the breeding season and for this reason, we are highlighting our foundation stallion SKIM THE HILL.

He has a small biography on the right hand pane of this blog but we thought that it wouldnt go amiss to remind players of his achivements and what they will be getting for, well nothing as he stands for $0 at the present time.

From an outstanding pedigree boasting some of the best names to be found on both sides of the Atlantic and across the Globe, "Skimmy" is not only a son of the late Danehill he is the ONLY son of Danehill to stand in Photo Finish! His dam, Indian Skimmer, was a champion G1 winning mare out of Storm Bird by Northern Dancer who is also the grandsire of Danehill (which is an acceptable inbreeding in racing terms). Born an iron grey, Skimmy is slowing fading to become a lovely shade of dapple as can be seen above.

Skimmy ran for 3 seasons at the highest level and his race record reads: 19-6-1-2 with earnings of just over $1.5mil. Notable wins at 2yr old included the Gran Criterium (8f) at Longchamp followed 10 days later by the Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket (7f). At 3yrs he won the Caulfield Guineas (8f), the Phar Lap Stakes (8f) and the Courier Mail Classic (7.5f) and in his last season at 4yrs won the Emirate Stakes over 8f. In all he won 4 G1s and is considered to be one of the best sources of consitency and longevity in the game when breeding for turf.

In his first season at stud, he attracted only 7 mares from a possible book of 15 but the following year saw him oversubscribed and we had to turn away several potential bookings. It was gratifying to see that several of the stables who sent mares to him in the first season were happy enough to send mares back to him for a second season.

We know that some players have already expressed an interest in sending their mares to Skimmy this season and we would ask that anyone interested please contact us to confirm/reserve a spot. So far the list looks like this:

1. Bally Doyle
2. Bally Doyle
3. Foxies Lodge
4. Foxies Lodge
5. Chiquita Lodge
6. Rivendell Stables
7. Huttons Horse Haven (Bedazzled)
8. Huttons Horse Haven (Saline Solution)
9. Huttons Horse Haven (Silverstone)
10. Huttons Horse Haven (Lawn Leopard)
11. Huttons Horse Haven (Olivine)
12.
13.
14.
15.

Apologies if we have missed you off but due to a system failure in the stud office (temp staff got confused between Delete and Escape!) our records have been wiped out. So we look forward to hearing from you all again to book your spot and this year its definately first come first served and good luck with your foals!

Results - Weeks 29-30

Thats the story of this weeks runners! We sent 10 runners to the track and only 5 managed to get a run but from those 5, three managed to get place cheques so cant complain too loudly!

The most relevant point here is that we changed our usual scratch instructions from "Scratch if No/No!" to "Scratch if OK-" (meaning a runner will be scratched if the Steward saw that the horse was rated only OK or worse in a race). This is not to say that had the extra 5 taken their places they would have won any money but the point is that they didnt get a chance.

Wooden Spoon continued her improvement finishing 4th in the G1 Coaching Club American Oaks and earning another solid $15,000. Two Schekles also ran in an Oaks race, this time the G3 Delaware Oaks to finish 3rd and earn $25,000. The final earner from the trio was ElectricBarbarella who ran in the G3 Sanford Stakes to get a nice $5,000 into his kitty.

Norwegian Blue ran a sluggish race to finish 5th whilst Danceswithwolves only managed 6th. Both will drop back in distance next time out.

Results - Weeks 27/28

Isn't it always the way - one week you have results that put a smile on your face, then the next - all you want to do is scream! Well thats what happened this weekend.

First off was Arod in a G2 1mile race on turf who finished 5th so it looks like he will be dropping back a few furlongs next time out (and probably in grade too).

Next up was United, one of our new purchases who managed to find a field of 4 which included the marvellous Beamington and Personally Majestic so I suppose a 4th place was the best we could hope for and he duly obliged, picking up $17,500 for his efforts. Next time out we will try for a few more furlongs as we dont think that 10f is his optimum trip but will stick to dirt and G2 races which seem to suit.

One of our 2yr olds, Union of the Snake was sent out to contest a G3 sprint over 5.5f on turf but finished just out of the money in 5th. Perhaps another furlong or so would be better and its early days yet for her career.

Rain Man was out again in an stakes race over 6f and despite rating out the back and then finishing like a train, was just denied a win to bring home a 2nd place cheque of $18,750 and keeping up his fine earnings record. Same again for him next time.

Hold Back the Rain was next up in his 2yr old G2 race over 5.5f but disappointed slightly to only finish 5th but after his first run where he came back very sore, we were relieved to see no ill effects. Perhaps another furlong or so would be of benefit and a few weeks rest before sending him out again.

Dangold, like United, managed to pull a 4 runner field and also found herself up against some of the best fillies in the game, including Queen Street, Perfect Star and Charming Lil. Still, 4th place paid $10,000 so cant complain too much! Not sure of where to go with her - may have to consult the Oracle known as Otsego soon!

Another new purchase, Notorious, was sent out to run in a SA race to get some confidence back and finished a nice 5th but probably found the 9f a bit too far. Expect to see him out again in the next few weeks but perhaps in more a sprinting role.

SpanishInquisition was scratched from his intended turf debut and we are now thinking that perhaps we should let him run without any scratch conditions just to see what happens. Volcan was due to run but an administration error meant his entry never made it to the Steward.

Overall slightly disappointing but all the horses came back sound and safe and we made a slight profit so there are always good things to see no matter how small!

Entries Weeks 27 & 28

Our travels this week are focused mainly in Australia and the US and entries look like this:

Arod - G2 8f Turf Moonee Valley
Volcan - G2 6f Turf Morphetville (Debut run for us!)
United - G2 10f Dirt Belmont Park (Again debut run!)
Union of the Snake - G3 5.5f Turf Caufield
Rain Man - Stakes 6f Turf Rosehill Gardens
Hold Back the Rain - G2 5.5 Turf Rosehill Gardens
SpanishInquisition - Starter Allowance 7f Turf (new surface)
Dangold - G2 9f Dirt Hollywood Park
Notorious - Starter Allowance 8.5f Dirt (3rd debut runner)

Hoping for some nice shows - especially from Rain Man who is back up in trip slightly and down in grade. Its also make or break week for SpanishInquisition who hasnt shown much on the dirt so perhaps a change of surface will improve him?

Also excited about the debut runs from our new purchases - Volcan, United and Notorious. Not expecting wins but each race is a learning curve for us so we are just keeping our fingers crossed.

PS Thats our travelling head lass, Helga who specialises in trips to "Down Under".

Welsh Wonder Does It Again!

As reported last week, we sent out one of our largest ever strings of horses to the races and what a set of results!

Recently, we reported on our naming policy and for those who managed to read the whole article they will remember that my second crop of foals were burdened with very unpronounceable names (and also very hard to spell!). The best of the lot has proven to be a mare with the name of Ab-Daledigaeth (Stephen Got Even x Spectacular Wiggle) and her name means "child of revenge - or very close to it! She was originally entered in a G3 3+F race over 6.5f but, after gentle nudging from the esteemed player DJ who runs the highly succesful Weeping Moon stable, we change her to the A Gleam Handicap over 7f on dirt, but still restricted to 3+F. And boy are we grateful! She trounced the field winning by over 2l and carrying 121lbs whilst the 2nd horse (Memoir of KRF Stables) only carried 107lbs. This now takes her race record to 31-13-3-4 and earning of $1,485,300 and there is still 26 weeks of the season left to break $2mil. This win may make us reconsider her next race which was due to be over the regular 6f. This week also saw a very good set of performances in by our 2yr olds, Hungrylikethewolf and Ms. Original come home 2nd and 3rd in a G3 5.5f turf event, winning $25,000 and $10,000 respectively. Both will be out again soon in similar conditions.

Another nice performance was seen by Norwegian Blue who seems to be hitting her stride (pardon the pun!). She finished 3rd on a yeilding Royal Ascot track and her efforts put another $45,000 into her account.

Bringing home some 4th placed money were Two Sheckles ($7,500), Danceswithwolves ($2,500) and Elidor ($3,750).

Slightly disappointed by the runs of Gonewiththewind, Royal Ensign, The Foggy One, Electrical Barbarella, Knight of Ni and Planet Earth. SpanishInquisition (Ab-D's full brother) was scratched due to the conditions.

That means this week we added $243,750 to our accounts meaning we have finally managed to break the magical $1millon mark for the season! Phew that was hard work, but it does mean a big stable party for all the hard work shown by our staff.

New Arrivals

This week we welcome three new horses to our stables - Notorious from The Raja Stables with both United and Volcan shipping from Hopeful Farms.

Starting with Notorious - a bargain basement buy at only $1,000 which reflects his runs to date of which there have been 14 with only just $1,000 in return. We feel that Tory needs a bit of a rest and hence has been turned out with the stable goat, Finbar, for a few weeks R&R before returning to training. He is a half brother to one of the stables most loved runners, Sendintheclowns who, whilst he didnt set the track alight was a loveable rogue and did manage to earn over $1millon despite his fragile legs! Hopefully a bit of TLC will bring out the best of Tory too.

Moving on to United. Unusally for us, we have gone for an older horse and United is now 6yr olds but surprising has had only 17 runs earning just under $200,000. A closer inspection of his record however shows that he was off the track for all of his 4yr and 5yrold seasons for reasons unknown. His first two runs back for Hopeful Farms didnt show much but we know there is more to this old horse and a bit of inspirational entering could be the key! So look out for him over 12f+ on dirt in the lower grades.

From one old timer to a debutant. At only 2yr olds and having only had one lifetime start Volcan is by the smart sprinting sire, Missy's Bridle who stands at Golden Acres Farms in Australia, out of one of Bally Doyles foundation stock, Lady Lava who also is the dam of Arglwyddes Clegr who is now retired to our broodmare ranks. Whilst LL never set the racing world on fire, her breeding suggested that a match with Missy's Bridle would be the way forward and we were very pleased to be able to bring Volcan to us. Only time will tell us about his ability but we are hoping for a smart sprinter later in the season.

We are grateful to Hopeful Farm for allowing us to purchase United & Volcan at (hopefuly!) the bargain price of $450,000 for the pair.

Entries - Weeks 25/26

Whats 3 x 5? C'mon quickly!!

Yup FIFTEEN and the signifcance of that number is that last week we sent out three runners and this week five times that amount!

Here are our entries:

Princess Stakes - Two Sheckles

Queens Vase - The Foggy One

Vagrancy Handicap- Ab-Daledigaeth

Coronation Stakes - Norwegian Blue

Blue Diamond Preview - Ms. Original

Blue Diamond Preview - Hungrylikethewolf

Bashford Manor Stakes - ElectricBarbarella

Neartic Stakes - SpanishInquisition

Grand Prix de Paris - Knight of Ni

Astoria Stakes - Planet Earth

Detonator Stakes - Royal Ensign

Kensington Stakes - Gonewiththewind

The Debonair - Arod (SCRATCHED DUE TO RUNNING PREVIOUS WEEK)

Triscay Stakes - DancesWithWolves

Poker Handicap - Elidor

As for our chances - who knows! The Law of Averages though must come into play - ie the more runners I have the more chances I have of a good return! But this is racing so its more likely that we wont get much.

We are also expecting our two new purchaes - UNITED and VOLCAN to arrive this week from Hopeful Farm. As soon as they do, we will be posting more information.

Review - Weeks 23/24

Three was our lucky number this week - we sent THREE horses to post and two of them returned with THIRD places!

As expected, Rain Man came home in the money running a respectable 3rd to FDL Stables well bred colt All for Dansilver earning another $10,000 to his collection. Arod surprised a little by filling the same spot in his race and bringing back a cheque for $13,400. The Reflex looked in contention for a place spot in her race but just faded in the last 1/4mile or so but as she wasnt last we will forgive her!

Whats in a name?

One of the great joys of Photo Finish is that, unlike some and better than most other SIM horse racing games out on the ol' WWW, you get a chance to breed your own racing stock and, unlike the real thing, you actually get an Ability Report (AR) to go with it (think of it like a basic instruction manual although sometimes not quite as helpful!). Another little twist in the game is that you dont get to choose the sex of the foal, its all done on a random basis.

This then throws the question up - what do I call the new foals?! For some its very simple - take part of each parents name and hey presto. Others may use their native language (as we have players from across the globe) whilst others get creative. Me? Yup I am of the "creative" bracket, much to the chagrin sometimes of our ever patient Steward.

My first season in the game was pretty dire. I didnt win much money but I was determined to breed at least one foal. Luckily (and I can still cant remember how!) I got together enough money to breed two foals and as there were no "PF bred" horses around, I was able to choose from RL horses, which was fortunate as at that time I wasnt very familiar with US breeding. I decided to stick with what I knew - ie turf horses. My first pairing was (I thought) a no-brainer - take one proven world sire (Danehill) and match him with a multi G1 winning 10f mare (Indian Skimmer) and boy was I lucky. The resultant foal was Skim The Hill (see info to right) and the rest was history for him. As for the name - yeah, creativity wasnt high on my list then just something catchy. My second foal was another European match - the Derby Winner High Chaparral for a sire with Bosra Sham, a stunning multi G1 winning mare. Again, I hit the jackpot by getting a filly foal (first season - one of each!). She ended up with the moniker - Chap's Gal. She got sold quickly due to both her excellent pedigree and the lack of funds!

Anyhow, I digress. As I have admitted, my first season was more about keeping in the black rather than creating a racing dynasty and names. Come the 2nd season however and I was starting to hit my stride. Money was more forthcoming and this time around I bred 4 foals - and decided that to help me remember when each foal was born, I would create a theme. After checking with our glorious Steward and the Rules, I decided that Welsh names would work. So foals of 2005 breeding season were called Ab-Daledigaeth, Annibynnol Meth, Arglwyddes Clegr and Cariad Plentyn (three fillies and one colt). I still have Ab-D and Clegy but the other two were sold off to make room for the following seasons foals.

Now, if you pardon the pun, with the bit between my teeth, I became more daring so the 2006 foals were all given names of films that had won Best Picture Oscars but I still wanted to keep tis with their parents so I ended up with DrivingMissDaisy (barely linked to her dam Spectacular Wiggle - the film has a scene of Miss Daisy driving wiggly!), Danceswithwolves (bit better being by Sadlers Wells out of Russian Rhythm - sire being the name of a ballet company and russia having wolves.....), Gonewiththewind (not sure why but I think its the dam - Dressed to Thrill a la Scarlett O'Hara!), Rain Man (dam called Urban Sea ie water...) and finally The Godfather which doesnt really have a lot do with his sire Giant's Causeway or the dam Soviet Song but dang it - I love the film! Again, I have all bar one of that seasons foals still with me - Daisy being well managed by FDL.

Bet you cant wait to see what I did for 2007 eh! Five foals were born and this time I really threw the boat out - references to Monty Python! Looking through the Stud Book you will find Knight of Ni, Norwegian Blue, SpanishInquisition, Two Scheckles and Wooden Rabbit. OK - none of the names bear much relevance to their parentage but hey - fun names! (Still upset I couldnt call one Bigus Dickus - and for fans out there I can hear you chuckling!). I am pleased to say that all are still running for the Bally Doyle Stable (although some better than others!)

Roll on 2008 I said - I was really flowing with creativeness. Nine foals born and rather than try to find 18 names to submit (as we have to submit the pairing with both male and female names) I decided to cheat a little and find names that fitted both. Being a lifelong Duran Duran fan it actually was quite simple - find my CD of Greatest Hits and bingo the poor foals ended up with the names of A View to A Kill, ElectricBarbarella, Hold Back The Rain, Hungrylikethewolf, New Moon on Monday, Ordinary World, Planet Earth and The Reflex. These foals are this racing seasons 2yr olds and whilst most have had at least one run (in some cases more) so far they havent been exactly "No 1 hits". I have to remember though that the breeding policy here at Bally Doyle is not for precosious 2yr olds but for solid Derby Time 3yr olds and upwards. (Its hard but I do try!). And no, its not a typing mistake for Hungrylikethewolf - because we are limited (like RL names) to 18 letters including spaces etc, sometimes names are "squidged".

2009 saw more expansion in breeding with 10 foals and this years theme was a nod to Mr Bally Doyle who loves his Sherlock Holmes. You would think that it would be easy to do that - ie name them after books but in his infinite wisdom, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle put "The" in front of nearly all the titles! So I decided to include characters as well as places and books and we decided on Baskerville Hall, Final Problem, Moriarty, Reichenbach Falls, Sign of Four, Silver Blaze, The Irregular (sold to Woodbury Stables), Twisted Lip, Two Twenty One Bee and finally Valley of Fear. These are all due to debut next season and we are quietly confident that we have made better matches this time around than at any other time in the past.

Last year wasnt great for names - I had a bit of a writers block and also lack of inspiration. Then I watched "300" and my mind was in overflow! The poor foals are now all named after Greek/Spartan mythology or worse, lines from the movie! So come 2012 racing season you will be seeing Achilles Heel, Bellerophon, ClashOfTheTitans, Elysium Fields (thanks Chrystal!), Medusa's Blood, Mount Olympus, Queen Gorgo, The Cyprian, The Fates, The Three Hundred, This is Sparta and Triton. We also bred a freebie for a good friend in the game (Stonerside Stables) and she named it Flirt With Fame (sigh no inspiration some players!).

There you have it - a walk through my stable and the unfortunate nags with the dogdy names. Next time you look at the racecard and think - what a name - I thank you because I would hate to think that you ever thought of this stable as being boring!

Bet you cant wait now to see the 2011 pairs eh! Neither can I! Only 26 racing weeks left ;)

Weeks 23/24

After a hectic week of travelling for the stable staff last week, we have restrained ourselves to just the three entries:

Rain Man - Rubiton Stakes over 5.5f on turf for 3yr +
Arod - Jersey Stakes over 7f on turf restricted to 3yr old colts
The Reflex - Starter Allowance over 12f on turf restricted to 2yr old fillies

Chances

Rain Man seems to love the sprints on turf so we hope for a place, Arod is dropping down in both trip and grade from last time but he has some decent form in this sphere. The Reflex had a nice introduction to racing several weeks ago and we felt it time to send her out again, this time over 12f rather than 16!

Review - Weeks 21/22

This week saw a large congingent of 9 runners from our stables and the results were mixed but overall very pleasing.

Horses were sent to all corners of the globe and our results were as follows:

Norwegian Blue
Grade 2 HONEYMOON HANDICAP 5/16/2010 1 1/8 miles; turf 3-Year-Olds; Fillies
RESULT - 1st of 3 - $60,000

Elidor
Grade 2 JERSEY DERBY 5/23/2010 1 1/16 miles; turf 3-Year-Olds
RESULT - 6th of 6 - $0

SpanishInquisition
Grade 3 LOS ANGELES HANDICAP 5/23/2010 6 furlongs 3-Year-Olds and Up
RESULT - 9th of 11 - $0

Planet Earth
FASHION STAKES 5/27/2010 5 furlongs 2-Year-Olds; Fillies
RESULT - 8th of 13 - $0

Gonewiththewind
New Year's Gift 5/27/2010 1 mile; turf 3-Year-Olds and Up
RESULT - 5th of 6 - $0

The Foggy One
Grade 2 Perth Cup 5/27/2010 2 miles; turf 3-Year-Olds and Up
RESULT - 3rd of 8 - $35,000

The Godfather
Grade 2 Perth Cup 5/27/2010 2 miles; turf 3-Year-Olds and Up
RESULT - 4th of 8 - $17,500 (Injured - 4 days)

Knight of Ni
Grade 3 CINEMA HANDICAP 5/29/2010 1 1/8 miles; turf 3-Year-Olds
RESULT - 3rd of 5 - $10,000

Wooden Rabbit
Grade 3 FLEUR DE LIS HANDICAP 5/29/2010 1 1/8 miles 3-Year-Olds and Up; Fillies and Mares
RESULT - 3rd of 6 - $30,000

Total Money Earnt - $152,500

Overall we are very pleased, but it could be time for SpanishInquisition to move stables as he is not showing much on the course despite being a full brother to our stable star Ab-D. Otherwise it was a good run from Wooden Rabbit in her first run away from Shenandoah Downs, also a great confidence boosting win from Norwegian Blue. Great placed efforts by both The Godfather and The Foggy One, despite their remoteness from the 1st two home. Knight of Ni popped up with a nice 3rd. Elidor is off for a bit of a rest as is Gonewitthewind.

Mid Season Review

Here we are already at the midway point of the season and probably a very good time to sit down and see what achievements have been made - both off and on the track by our stable.

At the start of the season, we believed that we had a good balanced stable of runners, including some royally bred 2yr olds who were to make their debuts in the coming months. These included A View to A Kill, a colt by the legendary War Machine out of the multi G1 winning and Eclipse 2yr old Filly Dancing Delaware. His homeworks were showing him to be still slightly immature but progressing in the right way. From our 3yr old crop, we were hoping that the underachievers of last season would mature with another winter on their backs and we would be blazing trails through the Triple Crowns on both sides of the Atlantic! Sadly, this has not turned out to be the case and after a few early season runs we realised that whilst they had matured, our 3yr olds were definately NOT of TC class so money was not wasted on entry fees. As for our older stars, we were again relying on Ab-Daledigaeth in her final year on the track and also our other sprinting mare, Three Gold Pieces who was starting to fulfil some promise.

So after 20 weeks of races this is how our stable stacks up:

69-7-7-4 $592,500

This breaks down to an average return of $8,587 per runner which isnt too shabby in our modest opinion. Whilst it is a big drop down from last season at the same point, we are on track to break over the $1million for the season.

Our best runners to date have been:

Danceswithwolves 5-2-1-1 $111,250
Ab-Daledigaeth 3-1-1-0 $125,000
Three Gold Pieces 3-2-1-0 $121,250

Honourable mentions also go to Arod, Gonewiththewind and Two Sheckles all of whom have won a race and placed this season.

So, where to go from here? The answer is simple - more of the same. We do not believe in entering our horses in races out of their depth and would rather pick up reliable place (and win!) money in the right race than enter them and finish unplaced just for the sake of having a runner in a prestige race.

Keep checking back - we are going to try to get our PA to update the site on a weekly basis including a postrace analysis of our runners.