Monday 30th January, 2023

Methodtothemagic is declared in the novices handicap chase at Leicester on Wednesday.  She will be making her chasing debut for us and hopefully this will bring out the best in her.  The step up in trip should also help and we look forward to her rewarding her owner’s patience in the coming months as she definitely has ability and enjoys her jumping.

Fighting Poet looks as though he failed to get the trip at Kempton on Saturday evening.  Travelling behind the leaders until the straight, he looked positioned to take a hand in the finish until two furlongs out when a lack of stamina kicked in.  We will now drop him back in trip and hopefully this will bring about an improvement for the syndicate.

It was great to welcome the West Berkshire Racing Club to the yard on Saturday morning.  Thirty two members joined us on the gallops and for a tour of the yard before they went on to Cheltenham races.

We are delighted to help this excellent racing club and racing should do all it can to promote and encourage other racing clubs throughout Britain to spread the word of our great sport.

Some wonderful racing at the weekend at Prestbury Park with some upsets leading to victories for Scotland and France amongst others.  Energumene’s performance was largely put down to the colour of the obstacles by his trainer.  Although supposedly being schooled over white obstacles in Ireland, he had not raced over them.  It will be interesting to see how other Irish runners fair at the Festival having raced only over orange jumps in the emerald isle.

We were instrumental in the research of changing jumps from orange to white due to horses’ vision, therefore it was disappointing to hear AP McCoy express his view having not read the science.  As I pointed out to him on Saturday evening, how would he like to play golf with a green golf ball.

Well done to Back On The Lash who I part-bred with owners Sue Welch and Brian Duckett.  He once again showed his love of cross country and his toughness in victory on Saturday.  We are at present breeding from his half-sister who has a wonderful Passing Glance foal and look forward to the family continuing to go on to great success.