In the News
A quiet spell for us at the track as we haven’t had a lot of rain these past few weeks. It’s always tricky in the summer when the ground becomes very lively, because we don’t want to run on ground that is too firm and risk injuries. But all the string are in good order at home and with the rain that we’ve had this week, there’s a good chance we’ll see some action on a racecourse.
But while it may be quiet with actual runners, we’re not sat twiddling our thumbs. There’s been plenty of work prepping horses for the stores sales at Doncaster. We’ve got three very nice store horses going there this year. All three are as yet unnamed in the UK, but we really like the Diamond Boy gelding (Lot 120). Diamond Boy is a son of Mansonnien and thus by the same sire as Golden Silver, one of Richard’s favourite purchases. Golden Silver went on to win three Grade Ones and a number of Grade Two races for Willie Mullins. Also entered are a filly by Kapgarde (Lot 177) and a gelding by Maresca Sorrento (Lot 145) and hopefully they can find a good home.
Last week’s runners
No runners last week due to the unsuitable ground
This week’s runners
We’ve got a host of entries pencilled in for this week and we’re keen to get the season going, but it will obviously depend on the ground, so keep an eye out for the declarations on the day before
First up, we’ve got two set for Worcester on Wednesday. Valadom is entered in the novice hurdle over two mile seven. He’ll probably be a bit confused by these funny low obstacles, but we’re keen to get a run into him before heading back over fences in France. All being well, we’re hoping to run in the Grand Steeplechase de Dieppe in June. That said, he’s not without chance with Alain Cawley back on him and in good ground.
Our other entry at Worcester is Petiville, who runs in the maiden hurdle over two mile four, again with Alain Cawley riding. He’s hit the frame in his last two starts and hopefully they’ll go a decent gallop which will bring his stamina into it. He’s got a good chance in what doesn’t look an overly strong race.
On Friday, we’ve got four entered at Aintree, all four owned by Carl Hinchy and hopefully we can give him a winner at his local track. Three of those also have an entry at Uttoxeter the next day and we’ll probably go wherever the ground is most suitable.
Aintree is the only entry for Definite Outcome and he’s set to run there. He took a nasty fall last time out at Perth when tiring, but thankfully he was none the worse. He switches to hurdles and gets a decent racing weight with Hugo Hunt set to claim seven lbs off. He attained a fair level of form over hurdles previously, beating Flying Angel over two mile four at this track. He’s already won over this three mile trip over fences, so that shouldn’t be a problem and good ground won’t be a problem for him.
In the three mile chase, we’ve got Racing Pulse and Highway Storm, but the latter is likely to go to Uttoxeter instead. As it stands, Hugo Hunt will claim seven lbs off the former, which would put him right near the bottom of the weights. He’s another one of Carl Hinchy’s that have joined us and hopefully the new surroundings can guide him back to a bit of form. He ran alright at the start of the last season when he was brought down at the Open Meeting at Cheltenham, so hopefully he can run a big race off a low weight.
Highway Storm won on his penultimate start at Ffos Las in soft ground (having also won there on heavy), so current underfoot conditions might not be ideal for him and we’ll keep a close eye on that before deciding whether or not we’ll run. He’s also a new recruit to the yard and is near to bottom of the weights in his race at Uttoxeter. Hopefully he can give a bold show
Ramonex also has an Aintree entry, over two mile one, but he too is set to go to Uttoxeter where he would race over nearly two mile four.That trip should be right up his street considering he stayed on strongly last time. He was ready winner at Perth on his stable debut and he’s got more improvement to come. He does have a penalty to carry and while there’s a few decent horses in the race, some of those have already ran this week, like Ok Corral and if you take those out, it does become a bit weaker. He’ll have no problem with the trip and he should go close.