Good friends, good horses, big winners and great parties - weather permitting
The latest update from Lil Rockerfeller's co-owner Andy Smith
I just spoke to Neil [King, trainer] and Lil Rockerfeller is fine. He's going to be boxed off and go somewhere else to work on Wednesday, a nice little away day, but obviously, although Neil's pleased with him, we're looking at the weather forecast every day and hoping it doesn't get too soft.
We all know Cheltenham dries out very quickly but the outlook changes every hour, depending on which forecast you look at, so we'll have to wait and see, both for Lil Rockerfeller in the Stayers' Hurdle and for Doing Fine in the Kim Muir.
One way or another, though, it's an exciting time for me and my co-owners in Rocky: John Davies, Peter and Paul Govier and Geoffrey Brown. John has had horses for 30-odd years and still has a few scattered about; Peter and Paul are twins from Devon, they do a lot of steel-erecting, building barns for various trainers, and they're always working, but they had a share in Melodic Rendezvous so they know what success with a good horse feels like; Geoffrey Brown is another one from Devon, who buys and sells agricultural machinery.
I knew the twins from the races, just to say hello to, but when I went to see Lil Rockerfeller one day, they were there and it turned out they were part-owners. They and the others had already bought a half share, I bought a leg and we all got on really well. We go to the races and have a few beers together and we've been lucky that we've won a few quid with Rocky that's enabled us, along with an old mate of mine called Ashley Carr, to buy Danehill Kodiac.
I've known Ashley for a long time. He's got horses with Gary Moore and with Harry Whittington – in fact he's got a couple of runners at Sandown on Saturday: Octagon in the Imperial Cup and The Dubai Way in the EBF Final. Then he's got Doing Fine to look forward to with me and the Flat season with Danehill Kodiac as well, so there's a lot to look forward to, and hopefully a few more drinks to celebrate.
The best party we had with Rocky was after he won the National Spirit at Fontwell two years ago. We ended up in the Malt Shovel in Lambourn and there were a few sore heads in the morning but it's worth it for a day like that and we wouldn't mind another one after Cheltenham.
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Published on 6 March 2018inCheltenham Festival
Last updated 14:10, 8 March 2018
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