Kevin Ryan’s Owners’ Day is one of our most popular days and highlights of our social calendar and proved a great occasion again on Sunday.
A mainstay in our social diary for nearly 20 years, this day has always been popular with owners and the Hambleton team once again put all their efforts into ensuring everyone had an enjoyable time on Kevin’s private gallops and in and around Hambleton Lodge.
With a scorching summer arriving in September, it was a warm and beautiful day in the picturesque Hambleton Hills, where a large number of our owners with Kevin joined us to see the Hambleton horses in action, first on the gallops and then again at the parade in Kevin’s yard.
Owners were greeted on the gallops by the Hambleton team and Jane, our coffee provider for the day, who offered out tasty treats to complement hot chocolates, lattes and cappuccinos.
As owners enjoyed the complimentary catering and talked horses, anticipation grew that the horses were imminent as trainer Kevin Ryan joined owners on the gallops ahead of the Hambleton string cantering past.
Hambleton’s Director Of Racing Simon, took to the microphone and guided owners through the horses as they came past the gallery.
Jockeys Tom Eaves and Shane Gray were on hand to ride, as was Umar, an experienced and gifted member of the Hambleton team, who gained some well-deserved success and recognition when Triple Time won the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot.
The lads were in great form, with Umar acknowledging the gallery as the horses walked slowly back in front of owners to allow everyone plenty of time to get some pictures.
The equine stars of the morning looked in fine condition as they exercised on Kevin’s woodchip gallop, led by our talented three-year-old Washington Heights, who Simon revealed later would be in Listed race action abroad soon.
After the gallops action, owners moved down into Kevin’s yard to see their horses at closer quarters in the horse parade. The horses looked in fantastic condition as they paraded in the September sunshine.
Simon was on hand again and with microphone in hand welcomed owners to the parade before talking through the history of each horse, and what the next few months were likely to hold for each member of our equine team.
With the horses safely back in their boxes owners then enjoyed a relaxed tour of the yard on what was proving to be one of the warmest days of the year so far.
From the yard it was then off to the nearby award-winning Carpenters Arms, named in recent years as ‘The best pub in North Yorkshire’.
The Carpenter’s has been hosting our owners for around 10 years now and once again proved the perfect venue for owners to enjoy their complimentary two-course lunch. As you’d expect at such an excellent venue, the food was of a fine standard.
Owners enjoyed the catering and atmosphere for the rest of the afternoon as they talked horses and looked ahead to our upcoming runners.
The support of our owners once again helped ensure Kevin’s Owners’ Day was the usual great occasion.
It was great to see so many long-standing owners mixing with some of our new owners to Hambleton on what is always one of the team’s favourite days of the year.
We’d like to take this chance to thank all owners who joined us on Sunday and helped contribute to making the day at Kevin’s the great success it was.
We’ve been blessed to receive some very kind feedback from owners since the day but as ever, our team will be putting their thinking caps on to see if there is anything we can tweak ahead of next year’s day to make our Owners’ Day that little bit more enjoyable.
