Well this is annoying. I have just come back to update my blog to realise that my last two entries have gone!!
Steve is busy preparing the brochure on the newest member of our team 'a mujadil colt' who we are excited to be involved with this year. I hope to be able to load the brochure, pictures and video footage onto the website tomorrow.
I have also been preparing a portfolio of all the horses that PSB, Marten Julian Equine and Dark Horse Racing have been involved with over the years. It is a shame that a full record was not created before as it is quite hard to recall horses going back to the 80s. I have received emails from Marten and his wife Alex saying 'remembered another one' at the moment we are up to 12 but still counting.
I have enjoyed my first visit to Mick Channon's yard - their yard is wonderful and it is the first racing yard I have been to that has a warm comfortable office and lounge for owners which is wonderful to have when visiting in the winter.
Thanks for visiting :-)
Friday 14 October 2011
What a quiet summer Dark Horse Racing has had!
Finally though things can move forward so I am keen to get going and embrace all things new.
A newsletter has gone out today and we have a stable visit coming up plus a Christmas do for our owners.
Empress Leizu came third this evening and this partly has to be attributed to the great ride she got. It is so nice when that happens.
Looking forward to getting pictures and videos online soon. Plus hopefully some brochures advertising horses!
Please continue to keep in touch.
Friday 1 July 2011
Well June seemed to arrive and go in the blink of an eye!
I was very busy finishing off some work that needed doing and somehow I also managed to fit in a lot of work on Royal Ascot for Marten. I also worked a lot of evenings to ensure that clients could download information from our www.martenjulian.com site
I have been debating this week on how I can please all our racehorse owners and may have to admit that I can't. It seems that no matter how hard you work for some people and the extra effort you put in it will never be enough. This week I have received some lovely emails from clients and a couple of owners thanking me for our wonderful customer service and in the same week read an email that said the total opposite! If I do something wrong I will admit it and always try to rectify the situation.
I will continue to aim high and to please all our customers and owners and if ever anyone is not happy I will aim to win them back somehow. I will not be defeated ;-)
Onto forthcoming projects Marten returns from the south next week and I am looking forward to putting in place our plans for the remainder of 2011. It seems that we have a few keen people who would like an involvement in a racehorse partnership and I am keen to start another one.
By the end of July I will be totally up to date on all my current/outstanding work so will be ready to apply myself totally in the launch of something new.
Watch this space and keep in touch.
Thank you for reading my blog
Rebecca
Tuesday 24 May 2011
I was planning to make the trip to Ayr tomorrow with Marten but I am sorry to say that none of our owners can make it there. For that reason I have decided to carry on working in the office on my grand plans and go racing another time.
Technology progresses so fast and there are so many supplies that I seem to spend endless times researching the latest technology and what I can make use of. For this reason I am now limiting myself as the web is endless so you can therefore spend an endless amount of time researching.
I still believe some things are worth paying for and are more than happy to make to send text messages through a system that seems to deliver them one millisecond after I click the send button online!
I am busy doing research for a new service this week that Marten is launching and then I will have to concentrate on Royal Ascot however I have an idea for a new racehorse partnership. To get this up and running things may well be handed over to Steve who has worked alongside us for 11 years now. You will probably have seen his photographs and graphic design being used by Dark Horse Racing and Marten Julian and also read work that has been researched by him.
I have a feeling that the second half of 2011 is going to be a good one!
Friday 28 March
I had a lovely day on Friday at Tony Carroll's yard. It was so hot I got sun burn. It was lovely to see a couple of our owners and to see some horses again especially Empress Leizu. She wasn't very happy with me though as I forgot to take her her usual treat!
Marten is down at the sales at the moment while I work hard to close off two old Partnerships.
I have decided to hand over all book keeping of the partnerships to a book keeper to enable me to concentrate on our clients and owners and the progression of Dark Horse Racing.
Must dash as it is nearly midnight and I have a busy day tomorrow doing research for Marten.
Friday 18 March
Wow what a manic few weeks!! I appear to have survived Cheltenham any even more my three selections in Marten Julian's Bulletin Book all won!
I have a stable visit next Friday which I am really looking forward to as I have spent the last weeks stuck in the office starting at a computer doing research, processing orders and updating websites.
Marten and I have a meeting next week to finalise his plans for next season and the 2011 Flat season looks to be an interesting one for us! Watch this space....
Things are really busy at the moment. Apart from the fact we have a horse to manage the Marten Julian business is busy with the Cheltenham Festival fast approaching. Marten also has a plan for the 2011 Flat season which we are working on. We will contact past/current owners first and then of course our newsletter subscribers. Once we have informed our clients we will load details onto our website. I am really looking forward to a forthcoming stable visit we have planned at Tony Carroll's yard. I really enjoy meeting with our owners and to be honest it just doesn't seem to happen enough. This is something I would like to rectify this year. I look forward to updating things soon!
Tuesday 7 December
Today is a sad day for me as both Mastership and Nisaal were sold at the Doncaster HIT sale.
It is funny how attached you get to a racehorse despite the fact you don't see them all that often. I am pleased that John Quinn bought Mastership as I hope I will still be welcome to go and visit him. I have been told I am also welcome to go and see Nisaal so it isn't the end totally.
We always felt that Nisaal could do well over hurdles so it will be interesting to see what he achieves for his new owners and with Mastership you are never quite sure what will happen on the day but when he is focussed he can do really well! If you replay footage of Mastership it is amazing how he can come through and get placed when you think all is lost.
I wish everyone the best for the future and will continue to monitor their progress closely.
Tuesday 23 November
I am really pleased with Mastership's run on Saturday. I think he ran a great race and will be sending some polo mints to the stable for him.
I am saddened to read about the death of Peter Monteith - it is so sad to read stories of this nature. I offer my condolences to his family and friends at this truly difficult time.
It is a reminder that you never know what is going to happen and that it is important to take each day as it comes and count your blessings and time that you spend with your loved ones. I know that everyone says things like this when a tragedy happens but it is actually doing what you say that counts.
The cold winter weather is apparently on its way. I have to say it has been very cold in the Lake District this week so I have been wrapping up warm. I am determined not to get caught out like I was last year so have my thermals ready as well as my winter coat and walking boots!
Stay strong and warm!
Monday 15 November 2010
Well done to Empress Leizu who ran better today than we thought she would. Marten went to Wolverhampton to see her run. As far as I know none of our owners were able to make it which is a shame.
With regards to another matter David Duggan has now joined the team at Dark Horse Publications and is really pleased to be back contributing his Irish News to their weekly Preview. This will be especially useful in the New Year ahead of the 2011 Cheltenham Festival.
As Dark Horse Racing are having a quiet winter until things improve for owners in the UK I am not sure how many updates I will be posting but as soon as I have news I will be back!
I hope to be back soon.
Monday 1 November 2010
Today has been a long day. It is 21.21 and I am still in the office working away.
Marten and I have been having lots of debates today about the best way to move forward and whether we can do the club we originally planned. It is frustrating when things change at the last minute as I feel we let people down but I appreciate that I am not the race horse specialist - that is Marten's job. He knows the industry a lot better than I do and also talks to a number of professionals on a regular basis. For this reason I have to always go with his judgement when it comes to race horse purchases and the best time to launch things even if it goes against original plans or even printed literature!
Tomorrow I will send out November's newsletter to update everyone where we are with things and I look forward to hearing feedback.
It has been nice to talk to a lot of people recently as our lines always get busy around the start of a new season. People are already ordering Marten's Cheltenham Festival information although I don't blame them since we offer such a high discount for orders placed in 2010.
I will be back soon!
Saturday 23 October 2010
I have been busy recently with racing trips to York, Wolverhampton and Doncaster. Firstly I have to say how impressed I was with the new O&T facilities at York racecourse - they are so much better than they used to be.
We have been very busy with Marten's latest book going to print last week and this past week we have been finalising our Jumps marketing ready for dispatch. I hope to load information onto this site in the coming week.
Two of our partnerships are approaching the end of their term which is always a sad time to say goodbye to horses and owners but onwards and upwards with the exciting prospect of new partnerships, meeting new owners and hopefully welcoming back old owners.
Thanks for reading my blog!
Saturday 2 October 2010
Firstly I have to say congratulations to our owners of Empress Leizu who won this afternoon.
I am so happy for our owners as all three current partnerships have had good results recently. I love knowing that owners are pleased.
Next week I have to prepare the newsletters so I am also going to organise another couple of yard visits before it gets too cold! I also need some up to date photographs and video footage to load onto our website.
Saturday 18 September 2010
Well I have to say congratulations to the owners of Mastership who ran third in the Ayr Bronze Cup yesterday. It was quite a week we have been through analysing the runners and whether we would get in the races.
Marten travelled to Ayr yesterday to be with the owners and from what I know they all had a wonderful afternoon and were very pleased with the result.
I have watched the race this morning and was really impressed, he looked like Mastership of old the way he travelled.
Wednesday 1 September 2010
I can't believe it I have missed another winner! Last year I was not there when Mastership and yesterday I missed Nisaal's win at Leicester.
I was meant to be going to Leceister yesterday to represent Dark Horse Racing but ended up driving to London and back to bring my grandmother to live in Kendal which was a high priority for me.
Although I am thrilled for Nisaal I would have loved to be there.
Oh well there is always next time....
Monday 23 August 2010
I can't believe how far we are into the Flat season and how few times I have been racing.
In September we start work on planning marketing for the NH Season which includes the 2011 Cheltenham Festival. It is obviously not long till the start of the Club as well.
Next week we will dispatch our September newsletter so please register by using the link on our homepage if you would like to receive it.
Friday 30 July 2010
I had a wonderful day at Tony's yard last week. It is only a couple of hours on the motorway from here in Kendal so I drove down first thing ready for a 10am start.
The owners, Marten and I spent a lot of time talking with Tony and watching the horses work and then had an enjoyable lunch together.
My journey home was not as simple as the one there and took me over five hours so my plans of coming back to the office to do a couple of hours work did not happen.
Marten has been speaking with me this week about his new ideas for the Club so I have quite a lot of work to do over the next few days.
Steve who works on our website has decided a new photograph of me was required. This one was taken last Friday and here I am with Empress Leizu.
I hope you have a nice weekend.
PS - Below is the BHA's unique audio blogging service - which is available through their website. Some interesting interviews on here.
Friday 2 July 2010
Well this has been a tricky week with the weather staying hot and trying to plan runs for the horses.
To complete my week a fault with our Broadband provider means we have no internet in the office at the moment and probably won't get it back till the middle of next week. This means I have to do web updates from Marten's office or home and it also means I have limited access to my emails.
On the plus side I hope to be racing at Windsor on Monday but who knows?!?
Enjoy the weekend.
Friday 25 June 2010
This week I have finalised the dates for the stable visit and have been chasing the items I ordered for our welcome packs.
More entries have been made so hopefully there will be a run soon.
Today I watched one of our old horses, Northern Lad, run at Market Rasen - it is a shame he couldn't hold on just a little longer.
Have a good weekend in the heatwave!
Friday 18 June 2010
This week we have ordered all the items for our welcome packs for the owners of Mastership and Empress Leizu so as soon as they are delivered we can dispatch them.To be honest I feel like I haven't been racing for a long time!
A lot of my friends assume I go racing every week but the problem with working on the administration side of horse racing is that it is more than a full-time job. It takes up days, evenings and weekends which doesn't leave much time to schedule in a day to the races. Mainly as being in the Lake District we are not surrounded by local courses so end up travelling for hours at a time.
I am hoping we will have a runner soon and that I can plan a trip to see our owners.I am planning two stable visits at the moment so that will be a good opportunity to catch up with people.
I hope you have a good weekend and that Royal Ascot has been a good meeting for you.
Monday 14 June 2010
I am back in the office today after a weeks holiday and spending the week working on Dark Horse Racing. My first job is to go through what has happened while I have been off and speak with Marten to get updated with things. I am then going to complete the VAT returns for our partnerships and prepare welcome packs for our new owners.
Next week I am then researching new technology that we can utilise for our Club and starting to work on the marketing and costings. As soon as this is finalised we can start our marketing to our online clients with special discounts for signing up prior to the launch date.
I hope to start this offer in August.
Monday 24 May 2010
Today I am preparing the newsletter to send out as well as contracts for Dark Horse Racing Partnership Five. Marten sold all the shares in our latest acquisition over the weekend which is wonderful news.
If you are interested in learning a little about Racehorse Rehabilitaion please refer to my review on the Marten Julian website or click here.
Friday 21 May 2010
This weekend Marten and I are writing a newsletter for Dark Horse Racing detailing the plans for the Club what is involved and the structure. Although I have to say we will hold some things back as a surprise for when members subscribe! We would like feedback on our plans as The Dark Horse Racing Club has been built based on our clients requirements so who better to ask?
The sun is shining in the beautiful Lake District and I hope it is for you as well. Have a good weekend.
Monday 17 May 2010
I am pleased to see the video footage online and if we can get the shop finalised this week we will be up and running ready for club members!
Friday 14 May 2010
Well our video footage was finally finished this week and is being uploading tomorrow morning. That is a relief as I was starting to think it was going to be one problem after another. Marten and I are writing the DHR newsletter this weekend ready to email/send out on Monday.
Our Online Shop is also finished but I am waiting for our secure payment system to be finalised which is causing a delay but obviously vital it is right. I am so excited to start the club and can't wait to have our first runner in the club colours.
Saturday 8 May 2010
I am pleased to report that the problems with logging into the site are now fixed so fingers crossed we are nearly there. We have found a slight problem with updates, like this blog, in that quite often the text does not match and odd gaps may appear. This is being fixed over the weekend.
Our video footage has been prepared and is ready to load online and assuming all goes well this weekend should go live Monday afternoon.
Friday 30 April 2010
I was really looking forward to uploading video footage of my recent trip to a yard however after speaking with some of our owners it appears that our new site has not been working correctly. Although I can access the site fine from our office and have trialled it on four different systems some owners can't even log in! We ran some tests this week and there appears to be an error with Internet Explorer version 7 and our site. The problem is that I doubt anyone has exactly the same computer nowadays so there are a lot of variables to take into account. Steve has been working on the site all day today so until I know that things are working we can't upgrade the site and risk causing more problems. I have decided to put back the upgrades to the site till the middle or end of next week.
I am also sending out a newsletter next week with details of the Club's costs and inviting people to register for a reduced rate. People who register will receive a discount code to use when our online shop goes live. One of our old partnership horses runs this evening at Fontwell. It was be interesting to see how he gets along as he hasn't had a race since February 2009 in a run that attracted a lot of attention. We felt unlucky with Northern Lad and we hoped for a win on his last race in our colours but he came second.
I will be updating my blog next week and hopefully saying that our video section is now live! Enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend.
Rebecca
Friday 23 April
I may have forgotten to update my blog in a while for which I apologise. I update so many web pages as well as Facebook and Twitter that this new one slipped through the net. Things are progressing well as the shop is nearing completion. Marten, Steve and I were at a yard earlier in the week obtaining footage of the first Club horse. We are editing it next week in preparation for the marketing. I am very excited about loading footage onto the website. It was a lovely day at the yard which was helped by there being glorious sunshine. I watched the horses work and only hope that the video footage offers a feel of what it is like to be in a yard.
Tuesday 2 March
I have had to put my work on hold with regards to the the Club due to the forthcoming Cheltenham Festival. Marten's Cheltenham Bulletin Book is uploaded a week today. Since our marketing was late being dispatched it means the orders are late coming in!
Normal work will resume the middle of next week.
Rebecca
Last week:
It looks like the Club may launch sooner than planned. Marten and I are in talks this week with regards to the next few weeks. Today I am busy preparing the contract to send to people buying shares in Mastership. If you are interested please refer to our Virtual brochure page. I have been told today that our costs per month appear high because I include VAT. One of the rules when running a partnership states that I have to inform people of their financial commitment. I have to predict all costs for the partnership for the full term. I also have to assume that there will be no prize money. When I prepare our financials I show the Nett cost, VAT and then the total. The partnership is VAT registered and will claim back all VAT which is then credited to the bank account. At the end of the partnership all funds in the account are paid back to our owners. It's a very complicated costing to prepare but I would rather have a higher monthly cost and send owners a cheque at the end than risk getting it wrong for the sake of making it look cheaper per month.
