Saturday 27th May 2017 - another winner this week and 3 new horses.

We were all thrilled when Fine Jewellery won at Towcester on just his second start for us. He had shown moderate form prior to Lucy picking him out and Tom Malone buying him from Ascot sales and with some TLC, an MOT and plenty of work our faith was rewarded as Gavin Sheehan gave him a great front running ride to win well. The handicapper can’t be overly harsh on him and I’d like to think there is more to come from him as this will have given him huge confidence and I can see him improving throughout the summer.

Fine Jewellery wins at Towcester on his 2nd start for us.

Of our other runners this week, the mightily consistent Adrrastos was 3rd last night at Worcester where he failed to carry his penalty for winning at Plumpton last month. However, I think he ran a little bit flat and probably needs a bit of a break and freshen up before he runs again. Dynamo showed a vast improved run to be 5th at Southwell but probably didn’t quite stay the trip. He had jumped terribly on his debut for us, but at Southwell he was pretty fluent, so there surely must be races to be won with him over the next 6 weeks providing the handicapper gives him a chance now.

It was the end of season Doncaster May sales this week, and we managed to come away with three new purchases. We bought two store horses, one of which was a lovely looking 3-year-old gelding by last year’s winning grand national sire, Sulamani. He's out of a French winning chase mare (rated 130) and closely related to Tysou who was a 9-time winner for Nicky Henderson (during my time there) including winning the victor chandler chase. The other store was a sharp looking 3 year old gelding by Della Francesca out of French winning mare who is the sister to a highly talented listed winner at Auteuil. Both horses will be backed over the summer before having a break and will be in training for the winter.

The Sulamani 3 year old store horse.

The other horse I bought was a talented gelding called Dr Waluigi. He is 7-year-old by Shirocco out of a dam who won over 1m4f, and is a half-sister to numerous winners including the smart middle-distance stayer Darasim, from the family of Darshaan. He won his 4-year-old Irish point-to-point at Boulta beating a seriously good field consisting of the now 145 rated Ballydine, the 130 rated Robin of Locksley, and the 123 rated Tippmanboy! Dr Waluigi has been placed 7 times over hurdles and fences but has still yet to win under rules and so has a seriously low mark of 94 in Ireland, which has to be exploitable in this country, especially as his previous trainer had a strike rate of just 6% last season. I bought Dr Waluigi on spec, so he is for sale……!