Five winners over the weekend maintained the red hot form of the team. We’ve enjoyed plenty of highlights over the past seven days including a four timer at Exeter on Tuesday and a double at Newbury on Thursday which brought up the fastest half century we have ever recorded.
With the horses in rude health the plan is to press on and keep kicking with plenty of runners over the next week. We have a number of interesting contenders at Cheltenham’s three day Paddy Power meeting with Saint Sonnet and Brelan d’As on course for the Gold Cup on Saturday and Thyme White and Sir Psycho pencilled in for the Greatwood Hurdle on Sunday.
I always like to target Exeter’s Haldon Gold Cup card and was thrilled to see Greaneteen come with a strong late run to land the feature race on Tuesday. He has been a bit buzzy at home, will improve for the run and will soon be stepping up to two and a half miles.
Greaneteen will go up again in the weights again for his victory and once you are in the 160’s you might as well run in Graded races. At this stage I’m thinking of aiming him next at the Tingle Creek at Sandown on December 5.
Enrilo won well at Exeter, has always looked like a chaser and has more to offer and will run next boxing day at Kempton, while Tomorrow Mystery , an easy winner at Newbury, will be out again this week at Taunton.
On Saturday it was the turn of Modus to shine at Aintree after a long absence in the £32,000 two and a half mile handicap Chase. He’d done plenty at home, was clearly fit and stretched eight lengths clear of Springtown Lake on the run-in. Modus is a horse I’ve always liked and it’s great to see him back in form.
Flic Ou Voyou completed an impressive hat-trick at Wincanton where Grand Sancy struggled after a mistake at half-way in the Rising Stars Chase and then started choking which is unlike him. We will check him out on Monday and probably ride him differently next time.
I blame myself for running Solo in the Elite Hurdle on ground that was too quick for him. He finished fourth just behind his stable companion Diego Du Charmil and on this evidence he needs slower ground and to be dropped a few pounds by the handicapper. It is so tough for four year olds in their second season. They get no allowances and Solo, a big horse by Kapgarde, was bought to be a chaser and that is where his future lies next season.
The cards didn’t fall our way in the Badger Beers Silver Trophy in which My Way looked all over the winner coming to the last fence before weakening into fourth place. He was full of enthusiasm, doing too much in front, jumping extravagantly and just ran out of juice late on. He should be winning soon.
Present Man ran a nice race until he was badly hampered by a faller at the third last while Danny Whizzbang wasn’t happy on the ground and had a tiny, little bleed from his nose afterwards. I’m sure it wasn’t serious and imagine he should be fine to run in the Ladbroke at Newbury on November 28th.
On Sunday Hitman, who is only four, made a hugely impressive debut for us in a competitive Beginners’ Chase at Ffos Las. His jumping was slick apart for an alarm at the second last before he strolled home unchallenged. He is an exciting prospect who could appear next in the Henry V111 Chase at a Sandown on Tingle Creek day.
Sending Love completed the double at Ffos Las half an hour later and my daughter Megan rounded off another rewarding day for the team with a decisive winning ride on another stable debutant Rainyday Woman in the bumper at Stratford.
With so much happening at the moment please be sure to check out our weekend runners on my Betfair column which goes live at 5 pm on Friday and Saturday.
