Bishop Of Bling - Shares Available

After going through the racing fixtures yesterday I noticed a rare claiming race taking place at Fairyhouse in Ireland. Very few claimers take place in Ireland, only a handful per year.

After looking through the 5:05 at Fairyhouse I spotted something that I thought was worth a second look. The horse in question was the once timed race Bishop of Bling. Bishop Of Bling is bred in the purple, he’s a full brother to the top class Bible Black.

I watched a reply of his debut run at Listowel on the 15^th of September and got rather excited. A reply of the race can be watched by following the below link:

http://www.attheraces.com/atrplayer-replay-popup/VOD/957629

As you can see BOB found the trip of one mile very sharp and was outpaced before coming home with a wet sail, he passed all bar the first two home and can be seen running past the winner once the race had finished. I was very taken by the effort.

I rang Dr Newland and asked him to have a look at the race, Richard was immediately interested when I told him Mr McNamara trained the horse. Dr Newland has purchased 3 horses from the trainer in the past, Dashing George “won 3” Bellflower Boy “won 8” and Connectivity “won 5”

Richard thought the horse was worth a look but expected him not to get the trip at Fairyhouse, the trip was one mile four on heavy ground. Long story short we contacted horse racing Ireland to see if a UK trainer can claim Irish horses. This was a first and it took a lot of emails to be sent and bank details but we got there in the end.

A reply of the race can be watched by following the below link:

http://www.attheraces.com/atrplayer-replay-popup/VOD/960256

BOB was held up and ridden by the trainer’s son who is an amateur and hasn’t ridden a winner yet. The jockey could be seen struggling to hold the horse who wanted to go a stride quicker. BOB also met plenty of trouble in running and looked to have no chance. However, Bishop Of Bling took off in the home straight and made up a good 15 lengths on the leader’s despite running green as grass and not knowing what his job was. Raw ability got BOB into 3^rd position. The time of the race was 3 seconds above standard.

Considering all other runners in the race were experienced horses he ran a blinder and clearly has a lot of talent. Bishop Of Bling ran to a mark of around 72 me and Richard worked out.

We decided a claim should be made and 15 minutes later we got the call to say we were successful. There is an un-written rule in Ireland that Irish trainers don’t claim each other’s horses, I’ve no doubt connections would have been surprised they lost the horse. The claim price was 20,000 Euro so approx. £17,500 pounds. We feel that is extremely good value for money.

I think this capture is bit of a coup for us. Bishop Of Bling only started racing a few weeks ago and looks smart. The horse hasn't' got a clue what his job is and there looks to be loads more to come.

Bishop Of Bling will arrive on Friday of this week. The horse will go straight into training and we’ll aim for juvenile hurdles through the jumps season proper. I would like to think this horse could have a good chance of making the Triumph Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

Bishop of Bling stands at 16.1 hands so has plenty of size and is only a 3yo. He looks a certainty to win a race on the flat at some point so that’s something we can keep up our sleeve. If he takes well to jumping, we should be up and running in 5 weeks.

At the sales I'm sure this horse would be 30k plus. The Racing Post analysis of the race is worth a read, they seem to agree this looks a very good piece of business, I'll let Richard have the credit!

A claimer run at a decent clip. The third was claimed by Grand National-winning trainer Dr Richard Newland for 20,000 euros. Bishop Of Bling was snapped up by Richard Newland and that may have been a decent bit of business. This gelded 3yo still looked very green and there ought to be much more to come from it.

Securing 3yo horses that have proven staying form and handle cut in the ground is a near impossible task at the UK sales. They go for huge money.

This horse will be the replacement for Gran Maestro, the majority of shares have already gone to those syndicate members. Just 8 shares are available.

The purchase price was £17,500, by the time we have paid commission and travel costs to the UK the price will be nearer £19,000.

The training period will run from 1^st October 2016 / 1^st April 2017.

Total price per share until 1^st April 2017 is £2150.

This price includes training fees and all running costs with nothing else to pay. The shares will be sold on a first come first served basis, any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Tel - 07939800769

Email – contact@valueracingclub.co.uk