Covid-19 Pandemic - Update from the yard

Dear all 

We are obviously in very difficult times which everybody is well aware of, however in a strange way it is almost business as usual here at Kingsdown Stables, with the team in great shape and enjoying these first few days of Spring weather. We have put stringent social distancing measures in place so that our dedicated staff can continue to look after the horses with our usual high standards. As far as training is concerned, all the horses are being trained daily as if we are simply having a month's delay to the start of the season. A few horses have been roughed off, for example Assimilation and Desert Doctor who were going to have a shot at the all-weather finals or some other all-weather races before the turf season got underway. They have had a busy winter and a successful one, so they are now enjoying an early summer holiday. On top of that there are a few soft ground horses who we have drawn stumps with for now and we will target them for the end of summer/early autumn all being well. Otherwise we are very much carrying on in the hope that we will be racing again in May, there is all sorts of speculation going around as to when racing well resume, but ultimately I think nobody really knows and our fate will be determind by what happens in the next 2-3 weeks.

Most importantly, I hope everybody stays fit and healthy and tries to remain vaguely happy and sane in this very strange and difficult environment that we are forced in to. We are blessed to be working with the horses on a daily basis, who in their blissful ignorance give us a very refreshing escape from the doom and gloom of the real world at the moment. I think we have the string in fantastic order, they look great and we had a very good winter on the all-weather. We were looking forward to carrying that momentum through on to the grass, but unfortunatley that will just have to wait. Regardless of when we get going, we have a very strong team this year and remain excited and positive about the future.

Keep safe and best wishes to everybody.

Ed