Jan 6th, 2009 by Bert
I’m having a quiet time of it here on the farm. We’re very exposed here and it’s very cold - we’ve all had the flu and are mostly staying in. The kids (and me) have been spending a lot of time on the Wii, which can be a bit dangerous. There’s this game called Mario Kart where you career around …
Jan 2nd, 2009 by Bert
On we go to 2009, and a happy new year to all readers of the blog. I’ll leave my resolutions for now (still a work in progress…) but here are my investments for the year;
2009 is already booked to be a pretty poor year - the recession is unavoidable and the earthquake that was the banking collapse is stull rumbling. Sterling …
Jan 1st, 2009 by Bert
Happy New Year to all blog readers.
Not a lot going on with my horses at the moment. Tifernati comes down to Gary Moore’s any day now, and we should know fairly soon what sort of prospect we have. Astrodome has a massive appetite and is eating Gary out of house and home - we need to get going with him to …
Dec 29th, 2008 by Bert
I’ll be brief again today as I’m on cooking duty - I cook a mean Shepherd’s Pie.
Jane got me a couple of framed photos for Christmas - Bouguereau in the Derby and Winker in the July Stakes. They were fantastic professionally taken photos that I’d never seen before - I’ll post them in here when I get time. I couldn’t have been more pleased …
Dec 28th, 2008 by Bert
Today I will be backing mostly sporting greats at Leopardstown.
Kempes goes in the first, and he’s a warm order this morning. It’s a tough one to fathom - he appeared to prefer top of the ground on the flat, although he did well on soft ground on his only hurdle. He may improve for the move to Willie Mullins. He’s …
Dec 27th, 2008 by Bert
Christmas at Black Towers was a fairly quiet affair with most of the family ill. It was pleasant though - traditional and understated. We’ve all had the flu now, and I blame the flights to and from Lapland. I’d love to see a statistical analysis of how much of the time people get ill after flights - if I’m a representative sample it …
Dec 27th, 2008 by Bert
… and a happy new year to all readers of the blog. It’s a bit belated - I took to my bed early on Christmas Eve with a bad case of flu. Will 2009 be a better year than 2008 or will it just be a hideous year of social unrest? Is the world a better place for the events …
Dec 24th, 2008 by Bert
I went to Lapland on the weekend, which was good fun. It was a real winter wonderland - pine forests of deep snow. We had a late night husky ride (they don’t half motor), a reindeer sleigh ride followed by a trek to meet Santa in a hut in the woods and a snowmobile trek. The cabin was decent but the …
Dec 18th, 2008 by Bert
I’m going through a quiet period horse wise. Mon Michel is probably out for the season, and he was possibly my best prospect for this year. Tifernati was bought to go hurdling this year, but he had a massive wart on his backside which had to be removed - he should go in to Gary’s at the beginning of January. …
Dec 16th, 2008 by Bert
Two years ago I was on a plane with a senior partner at a large investment bank, and he was filling me in on the latest gossip from the city. Christmas time is bonus time in the city, and 2006 was a good year. He’d heard that there were going to be around 10,000 people in the city receiving bonuses north of £1 million. …
