We saved the best to last at Newbury on Saturday with the brilliant victory of Regent’s Stroll in the £100,000 Goffs UK Spring bumper.

A gorgeous, big strong horse from the family of Denman, he made a stylish winning debut at Ascot in November and I’ve had the valuable Goffs race in mind for him ever since. That was partly because I didn’t want to risk him picking up another penalty and it was a brave shout by his owner Chris Giles to go along with my plan even though as a five year old, Regent’s Stroll had to give a stone to most of the four year olds in the race.
He won with authority at Newbury, was doing all his best work in the closing stages, and will not be running again this season because we need to look after him with the future in mind. We have always thought Regent’s Stroll was smart, he’s already done plenty of schooling over hurdles and he’s an exciting prospect for next season.
While it was great to see him win in spectacular style it’s a concern that some of our horses are not running as well as they should be.
Marvellous Mick bled at Ascot on Sunday and another of ours bled the previous day. Some of ours are in and out and it’s the same in plenty of racing yards, too, so there is obviously something odd going around. Even so, we are building up for a big push for the final weeks of the season. I’ll enter a few over the Easter weekend and will be sending a decent team on Sunday and Monday to Plumpton who are putting on some serious prize money.
Then its all systems go for Aintree, Cheltenham, Ayr, Perth and Sandown. I see the Racing Post trying to make something out of nothing as usual regarding Threeunderthrufive not running in the Grand National and going for the valuable Bet365 gold cup at Sandown on April 27. I have never been that keen. Quite simply after discussing with Harry we both unanimously think he is not ready for that test and it would not be in his best interests and Max and his family agreed with us. Perhaps next year but definitely not this year .
For the latest news on my Saturday runners please be sure to check out my Betfair column which goes live the previous day.