Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

The north-east owners aiming for Gold Cup glory with Ahoy Senor

Owners Bruce and Carron Wymer hope Ahoy Senor could be a Cheltenham Gold Cup winner in 2023.
Owners Bruce and Carron Wymer hope Ahoy Senor could be a Cheltenham Gold Cup winner in 2023.

Such is the popularity of Scotland’s Cheltenham Gold Cup contender Ahoy Senor a tartan has been created in his honour.

The Grade One winning chaser is owned by Ellon residents Bruce and Carron Wymer, who are now selling scarves featuring the specially commissioned tartan, with the profits going to charity.

It’s only three years since the Wymers started owning racehorses but they already have a horse most can only dream about.

Ahoy Senor is trained by Lucinda Russell – whose father Peter also has a share in the horse – at Arlary House near Kinross.

The gelding has already won twice at the highest level and is being aimed at national hunt racing’s most prestigious contest, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, in March.

Bruce and Carron Wymer who own Ahoy Senor.

Carron Wymer said: “It’s been a massive dream, we pinch ourselves as to how we ended up with his incredible horse.

“We wanted to do something which gave something back to charity linked to racing because we’ve had such a great time as owners.

“The tartan has been commissioned and the profits will go where we want them to go.

“We’ve had so much fun and Hank (Ahoy Senor’s nickname) has taken us on such a journey we wanted to give something back.

“So we commissioned the tartan and we’ve had scarves woven which we are selling and the profits from them go to the charity Racing Welfare which supports racing staff.”

Anyone interested in purchasing an Ahoy Senor scarf can do so by emailing carronwymer@gmail.com

He wowed us

The story of how Bruce and Carron became owners is a poignant one.

Bruce explained: “We started just over three years ago after Carron’s father (Barnett Kay) had sadly passed away.

“He was an avid racing fan all his life watching on TV and placing small bets.

“When he passed away he left Carron a very small amount of money and we didn’t know what to do with it.

“About a year later we were getting our house decorated and the decorator was talking about some shares he had in a couple of horses.

“So we thought that might be something to do with the money Carron had been left.

Lucinda Russell, right, trains Ahoy Senor.

“We viewed some horses with Jackie Stephen who was in Inverurie at that point.

“Then we went to see Lucinda and fell in love with a filly called Calle Malva.

“We bought an eighth share in Calle Malva which was the start of it.

“Her first race was in December 2019 which was pretty much the anniversary of Carron’s dad passing away.

“It was a very cold, snowy day at Hexham and she dropped about 12 lengths behind the field and we thought ‘what the hell have we done?’

“But then she charged up the hill and won and that was us hooked. We increased our share from an eighth to a half and we now have a couple of other horses as well.”

Recalling, how they first encountered Ahoy Senor – who has won the Grade One Sefton Novices’ Hurdle and Grade One Mildmay Novices’ Chase as well as two Grade Twos – Carron added: “Calle Malva won at Newcastle the day after Lucinda and Peter Scudamore had purchased Ahoy Senor at the sales.

“We were like ‘we need another one’ and we went in by the stables on the way back from Newcastle to have a look at Ahoy Senor.

“It was pitch black when he arrived, but he wowed us and we thought ‘yes.’

“We didn’t know anything about horses and hadn’t even patted one until three years ago so it’s all been fate I guess.”

Kempton date

Ahoy Senor is set to run today in the Grade One King George VI Chase at Kempton Park.

Previously this season he’s finished fifth in a Grade Two at Wetherby and third in a Grade Two at Aintree.

Although the Wymers had hoped for better displays they still have the belief their star – who is currently a 25/1 shot – can cut it in the Gold Cup.

Carron said: “I think we are still to see the best of him, you can see him learning as he progresses through his career.

“He hasn’t got that much experience and he has made some bad mistakes over his fences and he’s had us scared a few times when he’s got them wrong.

Ahoy Senor in action under jockey Derek Fox.

“But he does take that on board and he seems to be learning from it.

“We’ve still got incredible faith in his ability and we can’t wait to see what he does next.”

Bruce added: “The Gold Cup is still the plan and although his early races this season haven’t been particularly spectacular, they’ve not been damaging enough to say he’s not worthy of a place in the Gold Cup.

“If we can improve his jumping a little bit he deserves his place in the Gold Cup.

“Fingers crossed the conditions are right, he’s a horse that’s shown he’s better in the spring so conditions come March should hopefully suit him well.

“We think he could have a very good chance in the Gold Cup.”

Conversation