'Staff who look after horses during the sales are most certainly unsung heroes'

Our latest Godolphin Flying Start blog comes from David O'Farrell, from County Dublin, Ireland. His early experiences include working as a stud groom at Coolmore and as a content creator with racing syndicate All About Sunday, while he completed a Master's degree in management from Queen's University Belfast.

The 2022–2024 Godolphin Flying Start team are coming to the end of their time in Newmarket and what a two months it has been for us. The Godolphin UK team have been incredibly welcoming and
the weather even played ball for the most part!

We kicked off the phase with several practical rotations at pre-training yards, the British Racing School and the Dalham Hall Stud offices before we got stuck into the Tattersalls December Sales.

It was my first time attending Tattersalls and I was lucky enough to spend the ten days with David Redvers and his team. It was quite an eye-opening experience to see the hard work both agents and consignors put in for the duration of the sale, and how much research and questioning are put into each purchase.

The staff who look after these horses during the sales are most certainly the unsung heroes, getting up before the crack of dawn each morning to put in a long day’s work of showing and caring for their horse.

As things stand, the racing side of the industry is what appeals to me more and I really enjoyed some of the lectures and visits we have had over the past month or so from the likes of Adrian Beaumont of the International Racing Bureau and Amy Starkey from the Jockey Club.

We also spent some time racing at Newmarket, Chelmsford and Huntingdon when we first landed in the UK.

We were lucky enough to visit Lambourn at the start of the month for an overnight stay that took in several different operations, including Andrew Balding’s yard and visiting the Lambourn gallops, as well as getting to see Malcom Bastard’s pre-training facility.

It was fascinating to hear how Lambourn is striving to be as good as, if not better than, its Newmarket counterparts, with the Jockey Club team there having some exciting plans for the future. It was great
to see the National Hunt facilities on offer at the Lambourn gallops too, with some of the more international members on our course really enjoying that side of the industry in the UK.

We have visited plenty of yards and stud farms around Newmarket too, including Roger Varian’s, Kevin Philippart de Foy’s and Charlie Appleby’s, but I think that one of the highlights for everyone on
the course so far was visiting Juddmonte and getting to see Frankel in the flesh.

No matter what racing jurisdiction you come from, everyone knows who Frankel is, so it was a real privilege to see him at his home.

We have had a brilliant time in Newmarket and I, for one, would love to come back here in the height of the summer. As the dust settles on our first four months on the course, I think I can safely say everyone is living their dream.

It is now time to recharge the batteries over the Christmas break before we head to Kentucky to kickstart our USA phase of the programme!

The ex-Files