We ended one of our quietest weeks of the season with a highly pleasing double at Ascot on Sunday that took our score to 147.

We don’t have many 50-1 winners but there was a reason why Blueking d’Oroux started at that price before his decisive victory under top weight in the £40,000 Juvenile Handicap Hurdle.
Basically he had run so badly twice earlier in the season that I was tearing my hair out. I felt it most likely had to be a breathing issue, sent him off to Geoff Lane for wind surgery, and then kept him for the spring in the hope that he might be a different horse.
He hadn’t been showing much in his recent homework so I didn’t know what to expect going to Ascot where he travelled really well and won handsomely ridden by our 5lbs claimer Angus Cheleda with stable companion Afadil finishing second.
Blueking d’Oroux looked a really talented horse on the day, clearly has a decent future and will be out again before the end of the season either at Aintree or Sandown.
Ivaldi then completed a fine afternoon for the yard with an impressive success from the front in the two mile, five furlong handicap hurdle with the help of a super ride by Harry Cobden. Harry was getting some unfair abuse on Twitter afterwards but until now we have had to ride Ivaldi cold from the rear because he has been such a tearaway. He has been a work in progress, is so frustrating and still needs to sharpen up his jumping, but after a busy campaign he has learned with experience to relax better, so we felt it was worth trying to let him bowl along in front this time. It was the right thing to do and just shows what you can do if you persevere with these horses.
We will have only a few runners this week with Oscars Moonshine a possible for the amateur riders handicap hurdle at Wincanton on Wednesday ridden by my daughter Olive.
Then after the Easter weekend it will be a case of gearing up for Aintree’s three day National meeting where we will be taking a team of eighteen or twenty horses.
If we have do runners on Easter Saturday do please check out my Betfair column which goes live early on Friday afternoon.