Sunday 22 March 2015

DREAM ALLIANCE, THE HORSE THAT 'GREW UP' ON AN ALLOTMENT..

No, she has not been drinking pints of 'Black Stuff' aka Guiness, neither has she been 'nipping' at the Fino. This, Dear Readers, is a true Tale, it must be true, for it's in the press.

Stop sniggering.. and "Listen up folks".. there will gallop soon on to our silver screens, aka cinemas, a film called 'Dark Horse' and it is the true story of Dream Alliance, a racehorse.

And, to be precise, he is a Welsh racehorse who is the glory and pride of Cefn Fforest, a small former mining community near Caerphilly. He was bred by Jan Vokes, who had absolutely no previous experience of horses, let alone buying a mare for £300 and then breeding and raising a foal, on an allotment next to a slag heap.

You did read that correctly, for this gelding was not bred in some fancy stud, or raised by horse flunkeys carrying and fetching whatever their equine charge wanted. No, he was brought up his with his human neighbours all chipping in a tenner to cover his costs.

There was a disaster when he ran in the Grand National at Aintree in 2008, he severed a tendon and had to have stem cell treatment at the cost of £20,000! Gulp.. But 'came back' and made good by winning the 2009 Welsh National and the Perth Cup.

The 'boy' from the valley lives in retirement in the West Country but Jan has the bit and the racing bug firmly between her teeth and her eye fixed upon the Gold Cup, the BIG one at Cheltenham.

DARK HORSE. The film of the true story of Dream Alliance starts showing in the UK on April 17th.

Oh.. we do like happy stories.. don't you? Especially ones about animals.

GeeGee Parrot.
March 22nd, 2015.

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