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Monday 3rd April

We ended one of our quietest weeks of the season with a highly pleasing double at Ascot on Sunday that took our score to 147.

We don’t have many 50-1 winners but there was a reason why Blueking d’Oroux started at that price before his decisive victory under top weight in the £40,000 Juvenile Handicap Hurdle.
Basically he had run so badly twice earlier in the season that I was tearing my hair out. I felt it most likely had to be a breathing issue, sent him off to Geoff Lane for wind surgery, and then kept him for the spring in the hope that he might be a different horse.
He hadn’t been showing much in his recent homework so I didn’t know what to expect going to Ascot where he travelled really well and won handsomely ridden by our 5lbs claimer Angus Cheleda with stable companion Afadil finishing second.
Blueking d’Oroux looked a really talented horse on the day, clearly has a decent future and will be out again before the end of the season either at Aintree or Sandown.
Ivaldi then completed a fine afternoon for the yard with an impressive success from the front in the two mile, five furlong handicap hurdle with the help of a super ride by Harry Cobden. Harry was getting some unfair abuse on Twitter afterwards but until now we have had to ride Ivaldi cold from the rear because he has been such a tearaway. He has been a work in progress, is so frustrating and still needs to sharpen up his jumping, but after a busy campaign he has learned with experience to relax better, so we felt it was worth trying to let him bowl along in front this time. It was the right thing to do and just shows what you can do if you persevere with these horses.
We will have only a few runners this week with Oscars Moonshine a possible for the amateur riders handicap hurdle at Wincanton on Wednesday ridden by my daughter Olive.
Then after the Easter weekend it will be a case of gearing up for Aintree’s three day National meeting where we will be taking a team of eighteen or twenty horses.
If we have do runners on Easter Saturday do please check out my Betfair column which goes live early on Friday afternoon.

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Monday 27th March

Centara and Killaloan kept the scoreboard ticking over during the first of three relatively quiet weeks before an exciting end to the season when we will be gearing up to take strong teams to Aintree, Cheltenham, Ayr, and Sandown.

Centara has needed time to mature and repaid the patience of his owner Kathy Stuart with a stylish success on his racecourse debut in a bumper at Taunton last Monday. He will now probably run in the Aintree bumper.
On Thursday Killaloan completed an impressive hat-trick at Ludlow with a comfortable success in the colours of The Owners Group who are having a tremendous season. He is progressing nicely and looks one for the £100,000 Novice Championship Handicap Hurdle Final at Sandown on the last day of the season. We might also look at running him on the flat at some point this year given that he has a modest handicap mark of 66.
We left Newbury empty handed at the weekend where some of ours couldn’t handle the challenging conditions. On Friday Knowsley Road was a bit too free, and finished tired. He has plenty of ability and is one for next season when he will be jumping fences.
A day later I was hopeful of a decent show from Espoir De Guye in the BetVictor Handicap Chase but he was flat out the whole way and had a little bleed afterwards. Our bumper runner Summer Brise needs more time and will be a better five year old.
Once again we will not have too many entries in the coming days. Silent Revolution is our sole representative at Wincanton and we should have a couple of runners at Taunton on Thursday.
One that is likely to run at Stratford on Saturday is Beau Balko in a qualifier for the same race at Sandown as Killaloan.
For all the latest news on my runners on Saturday please do turn to my Betfair column which goes live early on Friday afternoon.

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Monday 20th March

We ended a superb week in high spirits with two winners at the Cheltenham Festival, a brilliant run by Bravemansgame in the Gold Cup and a treble on Saturday.

In addition I was thrilled to see my 17 year old daughter Olive finish third in the Hunter Chase on Shantou Flyer on her first ride at Cheltenham.
The horses remain in top form and have now earned well over £3.1 million for their owners with six weeks before the end of the season of the season.
Stage Star recorded my 47th success at the Festival on Thursday in the Turners Novice Chase with the help of a finely judged ride from the front by Harry Cobden who was riding brilliantly all week and was one of the features of the festival for me . All the talk beforehand was of the Irish invaders having a stranglehold on the race but Stage Star was more than equal to the challenge, jumped for fun, and stretched clear at the finish to win by three and a quarter lengths.
I was delighted by the quality of that performance and imagine I will train Stage Star for the Ryanair. He has plenty of boot, travels so well and I’m not sure he needs to be going the full Gold Cup distance yet but prob has to go left handed.
On Friday it was the turn of Stay Away Fay to sparkle with another positive ride by Harry in the Albert Bartlett. Once again the Irish horses dominated the market but Stay Away Fay, owned by Chris Giles and Dave Staddon, disputed the lead the whole way, jumping slickly, and kept on strongly to defeat Affordable Fury by a length. It was a taking performance by our horse having only his third start over hurdles. He is improving rapidly, a stout stayer who will be going chasing next season. Before then he could go to Aintree or Punchestown.
Bravemansgame then ran the race of his life when finishing second to Galopin Des Champs. The pair were upsides at the last fence before the Irish trained favourite eased clear on the run in. It was a hell of a race, as good a Gold Cup that you will ever see with an end to end gallop and some proper horses in the line up. We had the two best staying chasers from England and Ireland coming to the fore. What more could you want?
I’m so proud of Bravemansgame who travelled superbly, was pinpoint accurate at his fences, and was the only one to make a race of it with the winner. He certainly got the trip all right and we will have another crack at the Gold Cup next year. The options for him now are Aintree or Punchestown although he had a hard enough race on Friday and it wouldn’t be the end of the world if he didn’t run again this season.
Earlier in the week Greaneteen did well to finish third in the Queen Mother Champion Chase after somehow surviving an alarming mistake at the ditch. Hitman put in another solid run to be third in the Ryanair while I was delighted to see Captain Teague finish third in the bumper and will be a lovely novice hurdler for next season. The one that probably got away was Thyme White who is so good fresh and was tanking along when departing at the 2nd last when looking full of running .
The biggest disappointment came from Hermes Allen who failed to shine in the Ballymore. I know he is a smart horse and You Wear It Well, who finished second to him at Newbury, confirmed the point with a deserved victory in the mares’ novice hurdle at the meeting. I am quite keen to run him over three miles at Aintree if the ground is good. He will bounce back .
We hardly had time to draw breath before heading to Kempton on Saturday where Outlaw Peter and Complete Unknown landed the two most valuable races on the card at the Sunbury course. Both were given copybook rides by Harry on their way to decisive victories in what had seemed beforehand to be competitive handicaps.
The day ended with Farnoge completing a treble for the yard with Bryony in the bumper at Uttoxeter taking our score for the season to 143.
We are back in action at Taunton on Monday before a brief lull ahead of Newbury’s two day meeting at the weekend. We will have a few to run there including Summer Brise, a nice Kapgarde filly, in the £100,000 bumper. Go West could possibly go for a valuable bumper at Kelso .
Meanwhile I am half tempted to try to beat our best total of prize money of £3,646,511 which came in 2007-08. Obviously we need things to go our way but there is so much good racing to come so we could get close to that figure if the cards roll our way.
For the latest news on my Saturday runners please do check out my Betfair column which goes live early on Friday afternoon.

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