Alan's journey with Rae

Recently Aramis Grey provided our owner Alan Davies with his 51st winner trained by Rae.

We thought you would like to hear Alan's story of how he first met Rae and about some of his horses throughout the years. Below is the tale in Alan's own words :

 

We first met Rae in 1990 when I answered an ad in one of the racing papers.  The horse was a colt (yes a colt!) called Indian Slave. He was placed a number of times at 2 and 3 and fortunately we carried on with him at 4. After an unsuccessful run when ridden by Lester Piggott,  I think it was Lester who recommended running him over shorter distances. He then went on to win 4 races under Pat Eddery, Jason Weaver (then an apprentice), a young Frankie Dettori and David Harrison.

 He gave us a run at Royal Ascot in the Hunt Cup, and only a couple of weeks ago I met two of the old partners and we were reminiscing about the good old days.

 Soon after that I and a number of the same partners bought Nice Welcome who only won one race, but also finished third in the Lancashire Oaks.

 In 1994 Judy bought me a quarter share in Abbey House for my 40th birthday which was shared with Rae. She won two races and had the honour of being Rae's first and only two year old winner of that year - the race being won on New Year's Eve ! She nearly got me banned in 1995 though.

 In a claiming race with a big field at Bath, she was fairly well drawn in a claiming sprint race- but the lower numbered stalls opened fractionally late so all of the higher drawn horses got across . To my astonishment the race was not declared void as it seemed the authorities did not have a rule that covered this. I tried to withhold some fees to begin with until I eventually paid up. I remember Rae being quoted in the paper saying "my owner is taking legal advice". I think it was before they were married, but I know we had met Rachel by then although I don't recall asking her advice!

 Other winners followed in the late 90's including Roseum who won 4 in the colours of Chris Mills'  mum.

 The mid 2000's coincided with Sir Desmond who was a favourite of mine. He had won in someone else's  colours before being bought back and winning 3 races in my colours in partnership with Rae and MM (Mary McCabe if I remember rightly). He was a grey who liked to be held up and win close finishes over 6 furlongs. Now who does that remind me of ???

 It was 2004 when I got a share in Bahia Breeze (the best I have owned) and first met Lynn Lambert. It was the first horse she had owned, won 2 listed races as well as running in numerous group races including the 1000 Guineas. We kept telling Lynn it isn't  usually like this. Who would have thought  that she would be selling a Frankel foal in 2022 for 250 000 guineas !

 There was a memorable few days in October 2004. We bought back Sir Desmond on the Thursday or Friday of the HIT Sales at Tattersalls, then saw Bahia Breeze win the Listed Bosra Sham stakes at Newmarket on the Friday afternoon.  The following Monday, now running in my colours, Sir Desmond won at Redcar.

  I think it was the late 2000s when I first met Roger and Gwynneth Jennings. I think we have been racing partners ever since. I think Peter Sakal was already an owner with Rae, but I didn't really meet him until I took the plunge and went into the Reprobates 3 horse partnership (which also included Lynn as well as the Jennings). Things looked up with the Reprobates Too partnership that followed as it gave us Roman Spinner who won 5 and seemed as tough as old boots. Lovely to see Lulu's picture of her second foal the other day.

That brings us to the current partnerships with new friends/partners such as Sally and Andy, Jane, Jon Mitchell and of course Darren and Ann. I could never have imagined the success of the Musketeers partnership and let's  hope it still has further to go. I thought how lucky we were to have Roman Spinner winning 5 but then along comes Aramis Grey.

 Going over my lists has made me realise I have miscounted - Saturday was winner number 51 as Aramis' win at Kempton in November was actually number 50 . So right horse but wrong date !