Barney's Blog

A Force to be reckoned with...

Barney McGrew is a retired racehorse who lives at Denton Hall and wryly observes life around the stable. We reckon he's the world's only racehorse with his own blog. He's a bit irreverent at times and thinks it's humans who are the dumb animals. However, it's intended as just a bit of fun and absolutely no offence to any human is intended. P.S. Barney also likes Polos and carrots...

Evening all,

Well, it’s not very often I shed a tear – I’ve been around the stable-block a few too many times to get emotional.

However, I don’t mind admitting that my eyes were watering when we said goodbye to one of my all-time favourites, Gale Force Maya, on Thursday.

What a bloody star Galey has been. She’s run 46 times and won 13, including two listed races. On top of that, she’s been placed umpteen times and has earned nigh on £300,000.

She’s gone off to Byerley Stud, in Wiltshire, to join her half-sister, an unraced mare called Silky Sue. It’s a very nice gaffe by all accounts, and I’m sure she’ll be happy down there, but God knows I'll miss her

To be fair, she told me she'd rather stay here with me. She's always fancied me - they all do cos I'm handsome - but I'm no longer equipped to help her in the breeding stakes, so she's had to look elsewhere.

It's a shame but I’m already excited by the prospect of seeing her offspring. If they inherit half of her guts and speed, they’ll do alright for themselves.

Hopefully, I’ll still be around to see some of them come to be trained at Denton Hall. If they do, I’ll keep a special eye out for them.

Galey’s owned by a very nice human called Frank Lowe, who builds posh houses for other humans to live in. Frank’s one of our most loyal owners and he has four other horses at the yard: Boy Douglas Happy Helen, A Girl Named Ivy, and Roaring Ralph.

What you may not know is that Frank likes to name his horses after family members. Galey gets her name from her sire – Gale Force Ten – and the 'Maya' part comes from Frank’s granddaughter.

By the way, Ivy is the name of his 96-year-old mum, who loves grey horses.

Hopefully, Gale Force Maya will send a postcard now and then and let me know how she’s getting on. Thanks for the memories, Galey, old girl. Happy retirement - and may the Force be with you!

IT'S a strange time of year because you get a lot of comings and goings. Quite a few of my old chums are moving on but, on the other hand, there are a lot of new faces coming in.

The Gaffer and the Chloe Dods human have been busy at the sales, so there are plenty of yearlings arriving.

It looks like they've bought some really nice ones too. Check them out here: www.michaeldodsracing.co.uk/horses-for-sale/

NOW, I don't know if you heard, but we had a lovely little human, called Chloe Barron, at the yard not long ago.

She’s only six but she makes YouTube videos about animals, called Chloe’s Animal Adventures. She's already featured guinea pigs and alpacas, and she wanted to make an episode about racehorses.

What I especially loved about it was that she realised it was important to include me! So many reporters come here and forget that I’m the real star, so it made a refreshing change.

Chloe, on the other hand, even brought me some Polos and carrots. We even had a Tweet from the legendary racing journalist Cornelius Lysaght, saying how much he loved Chloe's report.

Praise indeed! I have a feeling young Chloe's going to go far. Watch out Ed Chamberlin - she's after your job on ITV Racing!

DID you hear about the Kenny Williams human needing to go to see the doctor the other day?

He was feeling a bit stiff and achy, so the doc examined him on the couch, before reaching up to the shelf for a big tub.

"What are you doing, doc?" asked Kenny.

"I'm smearing your back with lard," replied the doc.

Apparently, Kenny's gone downhill quickly ever since!

Anyway, folk,s that's all from me for now. Bring carrots. And Polos. Lots of love.