Saturday 2nd January 2021 – a winner to see out 2020, and a very Happy New Year to everyone.

It was lovely to see Anythingforlove maintaining her winning run when notching up her 4^th career win from just 5 starts.  She defied a penalty in a novice at Catterick earlier in the week, when powering 9 lengths clear, and looks set for a rise in class now.  We will probably look to qualify her for the Grade 2 EBF final at Newbury in March, but will try to target the Grade 2 Jane Seymour at Sandown in February in the interim. 

Anythingforlove wins again - her 4th win from 5 career starts.

We’ve not had many runners over the last couple of weeks, mainly due to the weather and all the abandonments, but I was delighted with Kiltealy Briggs who was a fine 3^rd in the Grade 2 novice chase at Ascot just prior to Christmas.  The front two were seriously useful Grade 1 performers, and the Betfair hurdle winner was left behind.  We’ll look to keep him to Graded company for the moment, and might look at Haydock later in January, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he ended up in a nice staying handicap later this season.

No Anxiety and Early Morning Rain both filled the 3^rd spot in a novice hurdle and a novice chase respectively, and both should go well when sent handicapping.  No Anxiety will have a short break now and he’ll be back on some spring ground, whilst Early Morning Rain will go for a mares handicap chase at Uttoxeter later in January.

Diddly Do showed huge promise when 4^th on her racecourse debut in a notoriously competitive bumper at Wincanton on Boxing Day.  She looked a bit green when asked for her effort, but stayed on strongly once the penny began to drop.  I think that she’ll go close on her next start against her own sex.  Interestingly, only 4 of our 24 Bumper runners this season have finished out of the first four, which bodes well for the future. 

I am pleased that we ended 2020 inside the top 25 in the trainer’s championship, and with some really exciting horses in our team, our patient approach this season should pay off through the spring.  I am very much looking forward to the New Year with the team in top form, however we will no doubt have a quieter January as usual, with the flu vacs, horrid ground and general ‘mid-winter’ break that a lot of the string have.

Happy New Year to you - let’s hope we have a happy, healthy, fun and hopefully successful 2021, with a return to some sort of normality in the coming months…..