Meet Gavin Cromwell's Stable Stars this weekend

Flooring Porter will be among the stable stars on show when Gavin Cromwell opens his doors to the public in Meath this weekend.

Cromwell runs a versatile dual purpose operation from his Danestown base and has enjoyed a successful start to the National Hunt season with 26 wins over the summer, added to the 16 he has enjoyed on the flat in 2024.

Dual Stayers’ Hurdle winner Flooring Porter will be joined by fellow Cheltenham champions Inothewayurthinkin and Limerick Lace, who won the Kim Muir Handicap Chase and Mares’ Chase respectively earlier this year, at the yard on Sunday with Cromwell looking forward to showing the community behind the scenes.

“We’ll have a couple of lots of horses riding out, one on the sand gallop and some on the new woodchip gallop,” he said. 

“Some we’ll school over hurdles, some over fences. Our vet will do a demonstration scoping horses, the farrier and dentist will also be there to answer questions and show what they do. 

“HRI are bringing the horse riding simulator and we’ll parade our stable stars. There will be coffee wagons and ice cream vans, so we will hope for nice weather!”

Cromwell is no stranger to putting on open days and has seen the events prove useful in terms of attracting owners to his ever-improving yard.

“It’s everyday stuff for us but people enjoy that insight, it’s something different for them to see,” he said.

“I sold a couple of horses the last time we had it on. There’s definitely a knock-on effect, it could be a year later you come across someone who was here at the open day and it registered with them at the time.”

Keith Donoghue and Sean Flanagan will be among the jockeys to meet on Sunday morning, with the event running between 10am and 1pm.

Those who attend will be visiting a yard in red-hot form, with Transcendental’s success at Navan on Thursday making it nine wins in 12 days for the Cromwell team.

The success shows no sign of slowing down in the coming weeks with the Kerry National still on the cards for Flooring Porter’s next outing on September 25.

Cromwell also likes the look of a couple of newer names, while Aintree favourite Vanillier’s path for the season has not been fully mapped out.
 

“Will The Wise won the bumper at the Punchestown and we are looking forward to seeing him going hurdling this year,” he said.

“Stumptown is another one who won a banks race at Punchestown and we are looking forward to him. 

“Vanillier was second in last year’s Grand National and we’re not completely certain what road we’ll go down with him yet but I’m sure there’s a good chance he’ll end up there at the end of the season.”

Register for Gavin Cromwell’s open morning here.

It’s everyday stuff for us but people enjoy that insight, it’s something different for them to see,