Tuesday 6th February, 2024

Mattie Ross is declared at Huntingdon on Thursday in the two and a half mile handicap hurdle.  As she is joint top weight, we will claim five pounds off with Finn Lambert onboard.  There is a fair bit of rain due but hopefully not too much.  She appears in good form at home and we look forward to a competitive run from her.

We have decided to wait until next week with Elfride who had two entries at Sedgefield and Huntingdon.   She will now hopefully head to Lingfield next Tuesday where the course should suit her better.

There was brilliant racing at the Dublin Festival over the weekend with the Mullins team winning multiple Group ones.  Whatever you may think about polarisation of the sport it’s great to see so many brilliant horses in action and surely El Fabiolo and Ballyburn amongst others, cemented their Festival prospects.

It was also wonderful to see James Best win a Grade 1 at Sandown.  He is an exemplary sportsman whose popularity is well-deserved.  However it was a very sad weekend for the Paul Nicholls team with the deaths of both Keagan Kirkby and Hermes Allen.

Keagan was an extremely popular member of team Ditcheat and his fatal accident whilst riding in a point-to-point emphasises the bravery and danger of the sport.  Whilst Hermes Allen took a fatal fall at the second last at Sandown the day before.

The whole of racing will mourn these tragedies which fortunately are statistically very rare but hard to take.