Region 5 - Open Day at Gary Moore's Ingleside Racing & Hesmonds Stud, 5th July
On the morning of Thursday 5 th July TBA members had a chance to see behind the scenes at Gary Moores’ yard, near Brighton. Gary has held a licence since 1993 and currently has about 60 horses in training, his record for last year, 59 winners on the flat, a 22% win record over jumps and 18% win record on the allweather, is testament to the family’s success. A normal day starts at 5am with feeding, and first lot pulling out at 6.30am. Members were able to see third lot on Gary’s allweather, 1m3f gallop, which is in the middle of Brighton Racecourse, with horses such as Waterside, Logsdail, Royal Stardust and Tavula in the string. We then saw Sand Cat ﴾a 4 yr old, rated 95 on the flat﴿ on the treadmill, where a 20 minute workout equates to 6 miles. The treadmill also turns into a sauna, very popular with the horses apparently! Grasp, a 5 year old bred by past TBA president David Oldrey, was then put over a couple of the new plastic hurdles for us, with Jamie Moore, son of and stable jockey for Gary, on board. This was followed by a look at the feed room in which the feeds are mixed by Mrs Moore ﴾Gary’s mother﴿ and then a demonstration by the farrier who was using racing plates with steel
inserts, since these don’t wear down and can be kept on between races.
Members then went on for lunch at a pub where Valerie Griffiths, former manager of Hesmonds Stud for 20 years, spoke to members about the history of racing in Lewes. Informing us that the course first began being used in 1724, and that Fred Archer had his last race there in 1886, the course was closed in 1964 after the Levy Board withdrew financial assistance. Valerie told stories about the times during which she was secretary for Auriel Sinclair when Tom Masson and Towser Gosden were in residence
training in Lewes.
Then onto an afternoon at the privately owned Hesmonds Stud, a 523 acre farm in East Hoathly. We were treated to a show of the resident mares with foals at foot. Illustrating the great family connections we were shown the dam Spotlight and her dam Dust Dancer, with their Montjeu and Red Ransom foals, respectively. Dust Dancer is halfsister to Bulaxie ﴾both out of Galaxie Dust﴿, the dam of Claxon; Claxon was shown with her Sharmadal foal. We then saw the filly yearlings in the paddock, who will be sold at
the October yearling sales, including a Dalakhani ex Claxon filly and a Nayef ex Triple Green filly. The colts were on a separate part of the farm, and we saw, again those going to the sales, including a Fraam ex Chicodrove colt who is from the family of Light Shift and a Domedriver ex Sea Ridge colt, from the family of Formidable, we had seen Sea Ridge earlier with her Motivator filly foal.
Our thanks to go all those involved for making it such an enjoyable and memorable day.
