Category Archives: Latest News

With less than a fortnight until the final day of the season at Sandown it’s brilliant to know that the trophy for the trainer’s championship will soon be on its way to Ditcheat for the fourteenth time.

Aintree’s Grand National meeting is always a key point in the title race and we headed home on Saturday night with a lead of almost £1 million in prize money.
The challenge now is to try to beat our previous record total of £3,646,511 earned by our horses in 2007-08.
To pass that figure we need to win a further £190,000 by the end of racing at Sandown on Saturday week.
Pic D’Orhy was the star of the show at Liverpool where he gained a deserved first Grade 1 success with a fluent victory in the Marsh Chase in the colours of Mrs Johnny de la Hey.
I am so proud of this horse who has so much ability and is fulfilling the promise he has always shown. He was a bit of a slow learner when he started chasing but these days he is lightning quick over his fences.
I was determined to by-pass Cheltenham with Pic D’Orhy and bring him fresh to Aintree. He’s a better horse on a flat track and the Marsh was his target from the moment he finished second to Shishkin in the Betfair Ascot Chase.
He is still improving and readily saw off the challenge of Fakir D’oudairies who had won the Marsh for the last two years. Its exciting to think there is more to come from him next season.
We started the Aintree meeting with the bitterly disappointing news that the BHA would not allow Bravemansgame to run in the Bowl on Thursday because of an investigation by the FCA into the firm of his joint owner John Dance.
These things are out of my control but that decision might just have been a blessing in disguise because Bravemansgame had a hard race at Cheltenham and will be back fresh next season ready to go again.
Some of the Cheltenham runners we took to Aintree ran very well. They include Stay Away Fay and Hermes Allen who both finished in the money, although Stay Away Fay could not quite repeat his excellence at the Festival.
Stage Star, however, ran flat on Thursday. His work had been fine in the  build up to the race but it is very difficult for horses to shine at both meetings and just shows the benefit of taking fresh horses to Liverpool. Bar the odd exception they can’t do both.
We ran a few more at Cheltenham this year but if your really prepare them for that meeting it is so hard to get them back in the same form for Aintree whether the gap is three, four or five weeks.
So next year I am going to be even more careful about choosing between the ones to take to Cheltenham and the ones I keep back for Aintree.
Complete Unknown, Sonigino and Blueking D’Oroux were among the group of ours who ran close to their best on Friday and have bright futures.
A double on Sunday took our score for the season to 156 with Jody Sole winning the Military Hurdle at Wincanton on Fame And Fun before my daughter Olive gained her first success against professional jockeys on Meatloaf in the bumper.
Looking ahead we will have two or three runners at Cheltenham in midweek before sending plenty of horses to Ayr’s two day meeting where Threeunderthrufive is on course for the Scottish Grand National. Iceo and Rubaud will have entries in the Scottish Champion Hurdle while Flash Collonges has the choice of the Scottish National or a three mile novice handicap Chase.
For the latest news on my runners at the weekend please be sure to check out my Betfair column which goes live early on Friday afternoon.

We head to Aintree this week without Clan Des Obeaux who has been been retired after a wonderful career which included successive victories in the Grade 1 Bowl.

He was a superb flagbearer for the yard, a brilliant horse and until a fortnight ago was on course for another crack at the Bowl trying to win it for a third time! But Clan has had one or two leg issues and when the red light starting flashing again we knew had to draw stumps and now the decision has been taken to give him a well earned retirement. He will have a bit of time off and then we will find a nice little role for him that he can enjoy.
Clan was at the top for so long, winning a three year old hurdle on his debut for us in December 2015, went on to land the King George VI Chase twice and later added a memorable triumph in the Punchestown Gold Cup and in all over a million pounds in prize money .
We start the new week with a score of 149 for the season after the deserved success of our hardy warrior Truckers Lodge in the West Wales National at Ffos Las on Sunday ridden by young Freddie Gingell on his second ride back after a collar bone injury.
It was the first win by Truckers Lodge since he ran away with the Midlands Grand National over three years ago. He has been in the grip of the handicapper for a long time but is now finally down to a more realistic mark and with ground conditions in his favour he was well on top at the end.
Twenty four hours earlier at Newton Abbot second place for Holetown Hero was enough to secure his place in the £100,000 novice handicap hurdle on the final day of the season at Sandown.
Pleasant Man has been a bit disappointing for us so far over hurdles but ran with much promise back on the flat at Musselburgh on Saturday when third in a valuable handicap over a mile and six furlongs. He could be one for Royal Ascot.
I should also mention my daughter Olive who gave Oscars Moonshine a cracking ride when they combined to win an amateur riders handicap hurdle at Wincanton on Wednesday, they may well run again at Wincanton on Sunday .
More immediately we have a few runners today (Monday) and are really looking forward to a big three days at Liverpool where we plan to take a team of eighteen or twenty horses. I just need to fine tune which one to run in each race.
For the latest news on my runners each day at Aintree please do check out my Betfair column which usually goes live 24 hours earlier.

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.