New beginnings

The week began well, as you can see, with this beautiful sunrise over Beverley House Stables at 5.30 am as we prepared Jolizero for his long and ultimately fruitless trip to Newcastle. Well, Joli may have disappointed but we had a lovely two days in Ireland, the highlight of which was buying a lovely Diktat filly who should be an exciting prospect for next year.

I'll leave it to the boss to fill you in on that as the week continues to be hectic. Sarah arrives today along with Alouette, a filly owned by the Moszkowiczes, whom we hope will go hurdling this winter. The yearling arrives from Ireland tomorrow so the four-legged population of the yard is increasing rapidly.

My postponed visit to Aston Upthorpe will now take place tomorrow and I always enjoy going there for the chance to see the now sadly retired Mtoto. He's a grand horse and a hugely under-rated stallion. We're lucky to have one of his daughters here, Sourpuss, and attempted to buy a colt by him at Fairyhouse but he was a really nice individual and ended up being out of our price range.

London beckons next week for another five days at Thoroughbred Owner & Breeder. I really enjoy the odd stints working for the magazine but can't help wondering how I coped with travelling around in London for so long. Perhaps I just need to get out more.

Thanks this week are due to John Ryan for taking us to Newcastle in his lorry, and to John and Catherine Burke for putting us up at their lovely farm in Baltinglass, Co Wicklow.