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Constanzia gives Osborne boost after yard fire

Trainer Jamie Osborne

Jamie Osborne admitted to feeling "emotional" after one of the horses closest to danger when a fire broke out at his yard provided the stable with a welcome winner just hours later at Chelmsford.

The former leading National Hunt jockey turned Flat trainer endured what he described as a "difficult night" as fire destroyed a tack room at his Old Malthouse stables in Upper Lambourn.

He was thankful that all horses and staff were unhurt, after being evacuated in the early hours while the fire - which had started in staff quarters in the early hours of Saturday - was eventually extinguished.

Osborne, who has had multiple Royal Ascot winners, sent a series of tweets updating the dramatic events - eventually culminating with his reaction to the success of Constanzia in Chelmsford's Bet toteexacta At totesport.com Novice Auction Stakes.

After the juvenile filly's victory, the stable's first of this month, Osborne tweeted again from the scene of the previous night's fire - prefacing his thoughts with the words: "There is a God!!"

He added: "I will confess now to being slightly emotional.

"This is where I was standing last night with Constanzia, trying to comfort her because we couldn't get her out - her box was too close to the flames.

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"Do you know what? All credit to her - she's just gone and won at Chelmsford. Amazing, what a wonderful filly!"

Earlier, Osborne told Press Association Sport: "It's been a difficult night.

"The fire was in a staff house, which is surrounded by 10 stables. Thankfully nobody was hurt - we managed to get all those horses out safely, and the fire didn't get to the main stables.

"This all happened at 4am, and I have no idea what caused it at this stage."

Osborne was initially due to send out five runners across Saturday's meetings at Chelmsford, Newmarket and Lingfield - and had revealed some of those horses were in the stables closest to the fire before being rescued.

"Some of the horses in those 10 stables run today," he said.

"Obviously they've had a bit of a trauma, and there was some smoke there, but they seem fine and I'm not overly worried that it will affect their performance.

"We have lost a tack room, unfortunately. I managed to get in there and save the colours for the horses that are running today, but I've no idea what we're going to do next week - we've lost a lot of kit."

Osborne's Saturday runners were down to four after Capofaro lost a shoe in transit and was declared a non-runner at Chelmsford.

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