The weather stayed dry yesterday and the sun even broke through during the afternoon, the 2016 Open Day here in Newmarket was once more a great success. We had visitors flooding through the doors from 9am and the last guests left us approaching 12:30pm. We put on three demonstrations of the water treadmill, Dr Shep our vet was on hand to discuss all things medical and Will and his team put on a shoeing display. The star attractions were the horses and they were thrilled to be visited by unexpected guests, the majority had their heads out of the doors throughout the morning.
Gavin and Senior Whim were weighed in a Weigh The Hack competition and came in at a combined weight of 724kgs, Gavin put this down to a heavy saddle! Three entrants guessed 725kgs but Marie's name was drawn out of the hat and she took home a bottle of champagne. Mrs D manned the entrance skillfully and Debby, Kim and Vicky ran a cake and refreshment stall which proved very popular, Debby’s brownies were in high demand. Judging by the smiles on people’s faces everyone had a good time during their visit to La Grange and we enjoyed having them here.
Proceedings moved from the yards up to The Rowley Mile and the Trainers and Jockeys vs Stable Staff 5 a side football kicked off at 13:30. Liam Jones scored two early goals for the Trainers and Jockeys and they were looking sharp with Charlie ‘the cat’ Fellowes doing everything he could to keep the Stable Lads at bay. A fightback occurred though and despite the efforts of Roger (Luiz) Varian who narrowly missed with several long-range efforts that the Brazilian full-back would have been proud of, the Stable Staff triumphed 3-2. The winner was scored by our very own Joe Parr who finally netted after being thwarted by the cat on multiple occasions, much to the delight of his screaming fan club on the sidelines. A penalty shootout followed and the result was once more the same, the Stable Staff triumphing comfortably after Saleem Golam emulated Chris Waddle and blasted over the bar whilst George Wood still has a long way to go before he loses his claim on the football pitch!
A tug of war competition followed and The Racing Aussies looked good in the preliminaries and had a quiet air of confidence about them as they took on the National Stud in the final. The National Stud won 2-0 however and gratefully received their vouchers from the event sponsors Waitrose, as did the Racing Aussies but their leader Steve looked a little glum as the Aussies once more lost an Ashes series!
Next was the main event, the Jockeys and Trainers show jumping. It was a fantastic event that was based first on points and then time, with the final joker worth a massive fifty points. There was some gallant efforts in the early stages with Adam Kirby taking the lead in the early stages and George Scott doing well to only knock two down under huge pressure from his old boss Michael Bell from the commentator’s box.
The best was saved for last however as first Hayley Turner stormed into a lead with a clear round and then Pat Cosgrave blew her away with a faster clear round to win the first prize and bragging rights for the next year. It was extremely well organised and both competitors and spectators seemed to have a lot of fun, the afternoon couldn’t have happened without the support of both Clipper Logistics who sponsored the event and 32Red who sponsored the Open Day. There was also a sausage tasting competition where local butchers were judged on their various recipes and La Hogue farm shop won the tastiest sausage category. Jean-Christophe Novelli demonstrated his cooking skills by the Grand Stand and there were many food stands with fantastic offerings. It was a brilliant day and a lot of money was raised for two fantastic charities in Racing Welfare and Newmarket Day Centre. There was a lot of hard work from a lot of people that ensured the day ran smoothly and we are thankful for all of their efforts in making it such a fun and enjoyable day.