Wayne Bailey / 09 February 2010 Free Bet

“We’re acutely aware that horses can look great at home and then flop when they travel to a strange place so were keeping our fingers crossed that he’ll come out of his away gallop reasonably well.”

In the summer of 2009, my editor Joe Dyer asked me to write about my experience of buying a horse at the Goffs Land Rover Sales and nearly a year on, the horse is preparing for his first race.

There's nine of us involved in the syndicate and we purchased a three-year-old son of Definite Article (Sire) and Glenview Lake (Dam) for €24,000. He's related to some black type in Megan's Joy, Tropical Lake and Tropical Lady. The above article chronicles a day at the sales so I thought it would be a good time to update on progress to date as we've been busy with naming, training and mapping out his future:

Naming and racing silks
This is harder than you would expect! Everyone would like something catchy and memorable and we all have our dreams about the commentator shouting our horse's name as he passes the winning post - but trying to get nine people to agree can be tricky to say the least. In the end, we all submitted one name each and then had a vote. 'The Brown Bomber' eventually came out on top (someone was a fan of the boxer Joe Lewis it seems) but when we went to register with Horse Racing Ireland, that name had been taken already. In fact, a number of names were unavailable and coming up with something original is harder than you may think. Next on the list was Tropical View, which basically comes from some of his relations' names. Tropical View was available, so that's what he'll be called - and while this wasn't my first choice, I think it's nice and feel happy with it. My five-year-old daughter had suggested we call him 'Jumpy' and I hadn't got the heart to say no - so Jumpy is his nickname in my house. Colours are just as tricky. Unfortunately, you can't just pick what you want and there's a strict set of templates to choose from. Again, trying to be original is difficult as most of the nicer combinations are taken already. We're still in the process of sorting out the colours but he may run in black and amber.

Training
The horse is trained by Colm Murphy (Brave Inca, Zaarito, Big Zeb etc) so we sent him off to Wexford after the sales where he went to a nearby pre-training yard to get broken in. Following some light work over the autumn, we let him have a rest for a couple of months before sending him to Colm's main yard. He's started to jump a few obstacles and the lads said he's natural enough but it's very early days yet. Colm has been relatively happy but in a week or two, Tropical View be taken for an away gallop (possibly the Old Vic gallop at the Curragh) as is normal for the yard with new horses that are reaching their peak fitness level. This piece of work is greatly anticipated by all of us as it will give us a better idea of his potential outside of his comfortable environment at home. We're acutely aware that horses can look great at home and then flop when they travel to a strange place so were keeping our fingers crossed that he'll come out of his away gallop reasonably well. It's not the end of the world if he doesn't go well, but hopefully he'll continue to show potential. In recent times, he's been grubbing up good and seems to be settling down a little (he had been a bit keen when galloping but Colm said he was just a little green).

The future
Anyone who watched the Colm Murphy trained Zaarito fall in the Dr. P.j. Moriarty Novice Chase at Leopardstown will appreciate how frustrating life can be for a trainer and I know that Colm had worked extremely hard to get him ready for the Dublin venue on Sunday. Our lad hasn't even raced yet so who knows what thrills and spills we will encounter but plenty of patience is required in National Hunt racing and we're happy to let Colm lead the way. Because he was bought at Goffs, he's eligible for entry in the big bumper at the Punchestown Festival which has a sizeable prize pot of €100,000. It may be wishful thinking but we put his name forward and I must admit, to see our horse listed (among many!) in the entry list was enjoyable for me as it's another first. Like a big kid, I've printed it off and added it to my scrapbook. I'm sure if you own a few horses these things seem mundane, but to a newbie, it's all very exciting. Horses that have raced before have a better chance of getting into the big bumper so if possible, we'll let him run quite soon. As mentioned however, we're in no rush whatsoever and are happy to take guidance from the trainer. I really don't mind when he races and definitely wouldn't like to rush things along.

We're being realistic; as most horses won't ever win a prize in their lifetime, but it's been a hugely enjoyable time for me so far (and that's before he's even raced) so I'm looking forward to adding more chapters to the story this year and beyond. I'll keep you updated on Tropical View's progress in the weeks and months ahead and if you've any questions or comments, feel free to make a post below.

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