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History - Bai Zhu (bay brown gelding 2004) was bought as an unbroken three year old by Nicky at the Goff June Sales in Ireland in 2007. Once at Seven Barrows Bai Zhu was broken by Corky Browne, Nicky's Head Lad of over 30 years before being turned away to grass for 6 weeks. Bai Zhu returned to the yard at the end of Autumn 2007 looking a much stronger and more mature horse. With the ground turning against us, it was decided that Bai Zhu would benefit from being turned away to grass un-raced to allow him to finish off growing and strengthening. Therefore at the end of May 2008 Bai Zhu left Seven Barrows and travelled 2 miles down the road to Kingstone Lisle, under the expert care of Jo Winter at her pre-training yard; Bai Zhu has spent every summer since then at Jo's.
2011-2012 Season - Jo Winter has done her magic with Buzz again and he has returned from his summer holiday looking like a machine! He is now race fit and the team is looking forward to his first race of the season in early November.
2010-2011 Season - Buzz had another very productive summer at Jo Winter’s pre-training yard just down the road from Seven Barrows. All the time spent on road work, flat work and strength paid off as we were blessed with another injury free season.
First run of the season, saw Buzz going to Fontwell in a competitive 2m 4f Novices' Chase on Thursday 28th October. Although the track was less than suitable due to its sharpness, the ground was perfect and the race went to plan, seeing Felix De Giles dominate from start to finish. Buzz's jumping was exceptional, looking more like a seasoned pro rather than a debutant over fences. In a tightly fought battle to the line with Alan King's decent recruit, Balzaccio, Bai Zhu held on by a neck to win in fantastic style. As you can imagine all of Buzz's connections were left delighted and looking forward to more to come from Buzz. From Fontwell we went on to The Hennessy Meeting at Newbury in November, where Buzz ran a cracking race finishing a very respectable 5th in 2m 6 ½ furlong competitive Fulke Walwyn Handicap Chase. It was a tightly fought race and only 6 ½ lengths between the winner, Regal Approach and us. As it turned out, after the race Buzz’s bloods were tested and we discovered that he had not been 100% - so an amazing result considering that he was not firing on all cylinders. With the weather turning against us, we decided to turn Buzz away for a couple of months – so back to Jo’s he went – which was the best decision as the snow came and it stayed and it stayed and it stayed!!! With the snow at last gone, Buzz made his third appearance of the season at Newbury on 25th March. A step up in trip to 3 miles and on his favoured Going – Good, Buzz ran the race of his life, jumping for fun and impressing everybody in a nail-biting finish with Winterwood. Stealing the silver by a nose, Buzz caught the eye and imagination. Three weeks later we went off to Cheltenham, but in a repeat performance from the season before Buzz did not run up to form finishing 6th of 7. Later examination showed that he had been suffering from a pollen related allergy that had affected his general well-being and breathing. With the ground getting even firmed and not wanting to risk Buzz further it was decided to turn him away for the summer.
2009-2010 Season - Bai Zhu has summered especially well and returned to Seven Barrows looking fitter and stronger than ever. Bai Zhu's season started slowly with an 8th at Fos Las on his first outing of the season due to ground being far from ideal but pleasingly the race brought Buzz on hugely and he came out of it fit and well. Due to the horrendous weather, racing was hit badly and it meant that Buzz's next outing wasn't until March at Newbury in a highly competitive race. Buzz did us all proud and battled hard to the line winning by a nose from the Big 'Orse. As you can imagine all the connections were thrilled! The last race of the season, came the following month at Cheltenham in what can only be described as a Calvary charge! Buzz had an exceptionally rough race and encountered a lot of traffic, which put pay to his race and Barry Geraghty decided to pull him up to save him for another day. Despite being tailed off, Barry dismounted with a huge grin on his face, rapidly firing his thoughts at me about Buzz: “he has some scope this horse, he just needs a fence”; “he’s going to be a LOT of fun next season”; “Ignore this race it’s next season that’s going to be the important one.” Barry also explained that because Buzz over jumped every hurdle he was having to “do a little dance” to get out of the way of the other horses making him less efficient than the other runners; also the amount of time he was spending in the air at each hurdle lost him a lot of time and wasted energy to boot. On top of this he was carry so much more weight than everybody else. Barry also said that looking at Buzz you would think that he needs soft ground but his breeding rings true and like most other Anshan’s he acts on quicker going. Nicky echoed Barry’s views and said that the race was more about gaining valuable experience and that the trip of 3 smiles is where we want to end up. Anything he did this season was a bonus and the fact that he won at Newbury over hurdles just shows how much class he has.
Buzz was then turned away for the summer, where he had a month out at grass with Jo Winter before spending 2 months of intensive road and flat work to build up his strength and stamina.
2008-2009 Season - Needing racecourse experience Nicky decided that Bai Zhu should have one bumper for educational purposes before we spent the rest of the season over hurdles. Needing a decent trip, we decided that Towcester's epic hill would suit Bai Zhu's stamina and so on 23rd November Bai Zhu made his racecourse debut. And what a debut it was. In a competitive bumper Bai Zhu set about putting in a fantastic show of gutsy steal and determination and beating the other 15 runners into first place. An amazing start to his racing career. Bai Zhu then moved on to hurdles, seeing him run a decent enough race at Chepstow but the ground was not in his favour and he did not follow up with another win. Bai Zhu was then turned away for the rest of the season and summer to allow him to finish off growing.
29, Five Stiles Road, Marlborough, Wiltshire, SN8 4BB, UK |
