Newcastle

Three runners at Newcastle tomorrow where the ground looks likely to be good to soft, Native Coll goes in the 3.30, 9 run, Peter Buchanan rides, if we have sorted out the little problem that affected him at Carlisle then he should have a chance - we won't know till tomorrow though!  Daasij runs in the 5.00, 11 run and Harry Haynes rides, I am looking forward to seeing how the step up to 3 miles works, he has been looking like he hasn't stayed in his previous two runs for us but his flat form suggests he should and it may be that he just hasn't been quickening, again hopefully we will find out tomorrow.  Twelve Paces runs in the 5.30, Lucy rides and 8 run, he has cheek pieces on for the first time and is slipping down the handicap.......... as ever, plenty of optimism!

Boom boom

Tremendous day at the Lanark point-to-point yesterday winning the first two races with Commercial Express (Kit) and Almost Blue (Jamie), Jamie then came good second in the Mens Open on Noir et Vert, the only disppointment was my "nap" Skipping Chapel who didn't really act on the fast ground and was pulled up. To top it all Jamie then won the inaugural Alex Fergusson Memorial Trophy for the leading rider at the meeting - not bad for someone who will be 46 this week and was most definitely the oldest rider as well!

Almost Blue

Delighted this morning to have been to pick up The Paddy Premium who has come here to be trained after finishing 2nd at Stratford yesterday for Mark Fleming; previously trained for him by Mark Molloy in Co Tipperary he looks in great shape and seems a lovely horse to deal with, hopefully he can give Mark (and us!) some fun over the spring and summer. 

Commercial Express

Blogamus, blogatis, blogant...

Well she says they are getting boring again, can't read them without yawning, he says what do you expect, he has had toothache for two weeks and has lost his sense of humour, can't eat properly so making up for it by overdosing on ice cream, not even losing any weight therefore, anyway tooth nearly better, much poorer though so sense of humour still elusive, she says he never had one anyway and why hasn't she been invited to write a guest blog, he says she will just be rude so he won't give her the password, ha ha!  He's going to take advantage of the absence of racing in the North next week and take the elder two away for a few days (the eldest hasn't had a holiday for 2 years - her fault for not seeing the main reason for being a student), she says what, again? so she is going to spend as much money as possible in Scotland for a few days, he says it's cheaper being on holiday than doing his day job because he can fly 3 to Geneva and back for less than it costs to fill the thirsty one up with diesel and that happens rather a lot, she says who's calling who the thirsty one?
 So, if we can afford to fill the big thirsty one up with diesel we will send four horses to the Lanark point-to-point tomorrow and run them if the ground is OK, they should all have a chance if the riders don't give everyone else too much of a start.  After that it will be a quiet time until Newcastle next Friday where we have a wide range of entries but will be hoping for a decent drop of rain, (but not too much!) then we will be bypassing the Berwickshire p2p but will hopefully have a few runners at Kelso on Monday 4th.  Today we enjoyed a joint visit first lot from Rebecca Rickets of Scottish Racing and Stuart Earley of the SSPCA, the horses mainly did slow steady work on the grass and a few of the pointers schooled over fences - they all seem well and then some of them enjoyed a spell in the field.
Fabby Frank's cross with me too for not giving out his Cheltenham figures, the independently audited returns to a £10e/w stake on his first two "system" selections produced a profit of £698 at Tote returns or £707.80 at Betfair SP after commission, so there says he, I say why muddle it all up with your own "tips" just give us the stats!

Alflora 2007 ex Minora

Isla Patriot

Four Fiddlers and Isla Patriot

The Buffalo (left) is back!

Sunshine

Glorious spring weather today, warm and sunny.  The horses that worked hard yesterday were allowed to take advantage of it and went for a long hack up the hill and through the forestry, others worked in the round school, on the all weather and on the rapidly drying out grass.  The winter floods have at last receded and we can assess the damage to the winter wheat, some fields are in good shape but one or two are very poor, some aspects to our strategy need reconsidered.  Conditions on the racetracks are drying out fast as well, it will come as quite a surprise to most people that Newcastle are going to start watering on Monday for their fixture next Friday, I think everyone had assumed it would remain a swamp forever.  Extra vigilance is now required to avoid running on ground too firm, I find that after a long season in training horses are more prone to soft-tissue injuries at this time of year and it can be tempting to run on "good" ground when it is actually quite firm, an injury now can rule out the whole of next season so care required!

It's also the time of year to consider any wind operations, I have had very mixed results from the operations that we have done but it appears that every trainer now is operating on half their yard to try to achieve a few lengths improvement.  I think it stems from the champion trainer being so fond of them, he even cauterized the mighty Denman's soft palate after his awesome run in the Hennessy, did it improve him a pound, statistics would suggest not an ounce but it will have given him a hell of a sore throat for a few weeks.  I'm not sure why "firing" legs is against veterinary practice but "firing" soft-palates isn't; maybe it's to do with what the eye can see...    We are lucky that we can use the same surgeon as the champion trainer as he operates up here every couple of months and we've got the Weipers Centre's fantastic overground scope facility, indeed wind ops have become a little goldmine for a select group of vets.  Some very good trainers I know do no wind operations, hmm, there are probably one or two horses here that would benefit from surgery but I will be thinking very carefully before I do anything... 

the mighty Denman..

Wednesday

Plenty happening again this morning with "Alf," Minimo and Four Fiddlers all working nicely at Lucinda's all-weahter, "Alf" showed particular improvement on his earlier visit there which is just as well.  Back here Daasij, Amulree and Papamoa worked on our all-weather and the point-to-pointers who are likely to be running on two consecutive Saturdays just had a stretch on the gallop.  I decided against running Native Coll or Amulree tomorrow at Carlisle, I feel they would both benefit from a little longer after their last runs.

The Kinneston lorry at the top of Lucinda's gallop

Meetings in Edinburgh later this morning then up to Perth to collect car from being serviced and back to Perth tonight to try out the Fair City's Tapas restaurant, superficial coverage on the radio of the budget and a couple of emails on the subject make me think George Osborne is barking up the right tree and starting the process of reversing the way the economy is presently throttled by red tape and a confusing and opaque system of high taxation.  It will take 3 - 5 years for the real impact to be felt but he has the right ideas it is just rather tragic that further devolution to Holyrood may mean the benefits are missed up here where arguably they are most needed... 

Routine

Back to routine work here today with most of the horses working on the all-weather this morning, Minimo & Commercial Express schooled over fences and then this afternoon Peter Buchanan came in and we schooled "Alf" over poles then Little Glenshee, Papamoa, Four Fiddlers and Forcefield over hurdles - all went well.  Stuart Mactaggart from Doncaster Bloodstock Sales visited this afternoon to assess our young store horses and selected a few for their premium Spring Sale, I would prefer to keep them here!  Isla Patriot ran well enough yesterday, I was pleased with him as he seems to be progressing, unfortunately Playing Footsie was badly hampered at the start and was unable to regain contact with the field so the exercise was a waste of time though at least she has now seen a racecourse and has a better idea of what is involved.  This week we have Native Coll and Amulree in at Carlisle on Thursday and five entered for the point-to-point on Saturday at Lanark, as ever, weather etc will decide who goes where...

Little Glenshee at Carlisle

Busy Day

Hmm, six runners yielded two thirds & a fourth, not bad, all ran well enough apart from Northern Flame who didn't seem to want to know, frustrating as I've long regarded him as one of our best prospects, Campbell's initial reaction was that mentally he doesn't want to race but I am inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume something physical is ailing him - problem is finding out what, I will do my best.  Forcefield's run was the most encouraging of the day finishing a good third behind two much more experienced in-form rivals on his handicap debut.  Newcastle's St Patrick's Day meeting was once again mobbed with well-refreshed dressed up Geordies having a ball, live on Channel Four, very profitable I am sure yet we were racing for buttons, eventually no horses will bother turning up - what will they do then?
I was sad to be absent from some highly competitive racing at the Buccleuch point-to-point, a record numner of runners I suspect, I suppose it shows that sport rather than money will always be the driver in National Hunt racing.  Dennis Penny kindly sent me some great pictures which give a good feel for the day, I share those below...

Tomorrow at Kelso the ground will be on the soft side of good, we have two runners; Isla Patriot runs in 2.10 for Philippa Gammell, Peter Buchanan is on top and 15 run, he ran a nice little race on his hurdling debut and I hope he can build on this.  Playing Footsie runs in the 5.10 for Jeremy and Sarah Billinge, Lucy rides, 15 run; she's a game young mare with a big story to tell, it's her racecourse debut and we will be trying to ensure she enjoys it...

HEAVE.......................

Whose going to give me a leg up?



This young man has kindly obliged, me thinks he has done it before!



Kit, Commercial Express and Emma

I hate running two in the same race....Diane leads Jamie in on Nor et Vert followed by Kit on Commercial Express

Determination - JFA on Noir et Vert