Nice to get the flat on the way. The horses are fit and working well. We have a runner at Kempton on Saturday, Cafetiere, she goes well and with a draw should be there or there abouts. No doubt the other trainers will be thinking the same.


Bluegrass Blues runs on Tuesday and is working well.

We are very much looking forwards to the trials at Newbury and Newmarket, we have horses to run there. Strategic Strike will need the race; he is fit but however lacks the experience.

I notice more and more All-weather races are being reopened, they need much more prize money. The costs are high, and you get a pat on the back at the most for your troubles.

Looking forward to Easter weekend

The horses are now in full work. We are working our two year olds next lot on the Summerdown gallops and there is a good feel in the yard and people are buying horses. We are expecting runners at Kempton over Easter. The weather has been bad, but the all-weather gallop and our gallop man Philip have kept us going so the horses have not missed any work.

We have entered a few two year olds in early closing races, Weatherbys Super Sprint, DBS Premier Stakes and the Weatherbys Insurance Stakes.

Cheltenham week

We had two runners in France last week, one ran poorly and one ran well. Stormbound got over excited before the race, thus ran badly. Kalicamix only dropped out in the last half a furlong, finishing 5th, which paid for the trip and he may reappear on Thursday at Chantilly in a listed event which may be a little too hot for him.

Although the weather has been inclement the horses are quite well forward bearing in mind. Other than Doncaster, racing gets off to a very low key set of races until April when we have Newmarket and Newbury in one week (can't wait for it). We have bought a faster type of two year old, trying to go the successful Hannon route and they are shaping up well.

Looking forward to Cheltenham in front of the fire although with new Channel 4 team, I am not expecting too many laughs. 

French runners this week!

The whole string is nearly in now and back in full work. Although we have not got a lot of horses, they are all likely sorts and lets hope we don't have to go to France for the ground and the prize money. Since last August we have had 8 winners from 11 runners in France, earning the yard nearly 200K with claims and prize money.

I can see the way things are going, average runners per race are down to eight, trainers are running purely for a pat on the back, benefiting only book makers. With many races being re-opened, All Weather racing could be under threat and prize money needs to be trebled. Everybody seems to have got used to racing for nothing, I think racing will start withering from the bottom.

We have two runners in France tomorrow, Kalicamix and Stormbound. Kalicamix is probably out of his depth but Stormbound has an each way chance from a poor draw.