We had a fabulous day at Taunton yesterday with Millers Reef winning for the Jamie Snowden Racing Club.  Daryl gave 'Miller' a peach of a ride to win by a neck; he jumped and travelled beautifully and quickened up well off the home turn to go 5 lengths clear. The runner up stayed on to give us a bit of a fright close home, but our chap battled on gamely to win by a neck. He certainly benefited from the tongue tie and the better ground on his handicap debut. I am chuffed to bits for the club – fingers crossed its the first of many winners for the club.   I have entered    H 

Millers Reef winning by a neck at Taunton yesterday.

"Shares still available in the club"

I cannot really believe that its March - the temperature is incredible, and it feels like summer is here.  Unfortunately, that has meant that the ground is drying up everywhere, which is not ideal at this time of year. 

Despite missing a few vital bits of work, we decided to run Miss Milborne at Newbury on Saturday in the listed mares novice hurdle final, and she ran a cracker to be 4th.  She adores soft ground, and relishes the mud, and unfortunately the ground was drying all day, and was officially good, but was riding on the quicker side.  So to be a touch short of peak fitness, and not have her ideal ground conditions, I think it was an awesome performance, and shows what a tough mare she is. 

Marodima ran again at Newbury on Saturday, and was 2nd.  He ran another stormer, and was beaten only 4 lengths.  I am not sure Newbury is really his course, as he doesn't get very high at his fences, and you cannot really get away with that at a grade 1 track, and so it proved.  However, he has been a star for us over the last 2 months, and deserves a little break now.  His problems are well documented, but at the moment we seem to be on top of them.  Fingers crossed it will rain in April, and we may get him out then, before a summer holiday.

"So that is what Daddy is training!" 

Lettie doing her 'homework'......

We have had an excellent week – with Ixora running a cracker at Cheltenham and just missing out on coming 2nd by 2 lengths in the mares race, and it was also great to pop in another winner at Towcester when everyone was looking at Cheltenham!!

Unfortunately Ixora missed out on running in the Coral Cup (by one), which had been our plan since she won at Cheltenham in the autumn, but she ran a lovely race in the mares race.  It was  a very slowly run race, and became a sprint for home which resulted in a blanket finish and we ended up coming 7th, being beaten only 2 lengths by the 2nd horse.  We had planned to run Graduation Night in the 4 mile novice chase, but he missed the cut by one as well, so he'll now head for the Somerset National at Wincanton in early April.

A rather poor quality picture taken (from my phone) from the Racing

Post of Ixora 2 lengths off Quevega at the last.

Marodima sauntered around for a facile victory at Towcester on Thursday.  As we all know he has plenty of problems, and we have to take each race as it comes, so its wonderful to have had 3 wins from him this season already.

Caminero ran another good race yesterday at Ffos Las to be 3rd - it was very soft there, and he just isn't strong enough to handle that ground at the moment.  He is a lovely horse, and just needs to strengthen up and fill his frame.  We'll step him up in trip on some better ground before he has a summer holiday and comes back novice chasing.  He'll certainly be a horse to follow next season.

We have been planing to run Miss Milborne in the Mares final at Newbury all season, and so it is frustrating that we have had an interrupted preparation for it over the last couple of weeks.  She has missed a few vital bits of work, and so may not be as tuned as we'd have liked.  I'll give her a bit of hard work on Tuesday and then make a decision whether we run or wait for a Listed race next month.

Yesterday both Ixora and Graduation Night did their last pieces of fast work before the Cheltenham festival next week. We had a crowd of owners here to watch them go through their paces, and I am very happy with how they both are. Ixora worked with Caminero and Graduation Night worked with Knighton Combe, and both pairs were very well matched.

Lettie casts a watchful eye over Ixora after her canter this morning.

It was slightly frustrating to see so many confirm for both the Coral Cup and the Martin Pipe 'boy's race, which means that our hand has been slightly forced, and we will run Ixora in the David Nicholson Mares race on the opening day of the festival. That said, I am very happy with Ixora, and she should have a decent chance of a place - it will be very hard to beat Quevega, but I do think 25-1 is a massive price for our mare. Tom O'Brien will ride her, and having won 4 of her 7 starts for us, culminating in a win at Cheltenham in the autumn, I cannot wait to run her. It will be our first runner at the festival, I hope dreams do come true......!

Graduation Night needs 3 to come out of the National Hunt 4 mile Novice chase to get a run, but I would be disappointed if that didn't happen, and Josh Guerriero will ride him. Josh would have been a professional if it wasn't for weight issues, and I'd like to think Graduation Night will jump and stay well, so he should have a squeak as well. It is lovely to go to the festival with chances, and we just need a bit of luck now.....