Sadly one of our old favourites, Klynch, broke his leg whilst turned out in the field this morning.  He had lunged well first thing and went out as usual with his mates only to be spotted from the stables very lame.  We went quickly to him and called the vet immediately as it was very obvious that he needed to put but to sleep as soon as possible.  Luckily the vet was close by and he was dealt with very quickly.

Klynch was one of the first horses I bought at the end of my first season as a trainer in 2009 at Newmarket Horses In Training Sales along with Dubai Dynamo and three others.  At the time I hadn’t much money to buy horses with so was booking my purchases down to the late, great D W Chapman (Grandad) whose instructions to me were “buy plenty!” Klynch was an 82 rated 3yo with Brain Meehan whose lads told me he was “a bit of a monkey” and didn’t put it all in but could suit a smaller yard and change of scenary.  I got him bought for £7500 and he ran the following February in Grandads brown and orange colours.  He ran 17 times in 2010 and was beaten narrowly several times but didn’t win and his handicap mark plummeted to 57.  He had a rest over the winter and the following year he ran really well first time out at Southwell to finish second.

Before his next run I was contacted by Dougie from St Andrew’s who had jumpers with Keith Reveley but fancied something for the flat and a deal was done.  From then on Klynch ran in Dougie’s lucky red and white silks and went on to win four races that year and went from being rated 57 to 87. in 2012 Klynch won three races on the bounce, York, Hamilton and Epsom he then ran in the Scottish Stewards Cup at Hamilton off a mark of 95 and finished 4th only beaten a length and a half having been hampered.  It was one of the few times I have seen Jimmy really mad when he came in off the track!  Jimmy was the only jockey to win on Klynch since we had him 11 times in total to add to the three wins before we got him.  When he got the soft ground that he loved Klynch could win by a street as he did twice at Ayr.  Klynch was a pleasure to train; I can’t remember him ever being lame – he certainly never had a long layoff through injury.  He was a great lunger and was hardly every ridden.  He loved being turned out in the field with his mates everyday so if there was a place where he had to be injured and put to sleep – his field was surely the best place.