Soutine ran a lovely race on his handicap hurdle debut at Huntingdon last week to be 3rd. He appreciated the step up in trip to 2m5, but I think he actually needs further still. We found that he was suffering from seriously bad stomach ulcers, and so having treated them, we gave him three confidence boosting runs over 2 miles, and then stepped him up in trip on his handicap debut. He travelled well through the race, but made one error 4 hurdles from home, and it looked like he might just curl up there, but he stayed on really well, and we'll step him up to 3 miles on his next start.
We ran Ballyboker Boy yesterday at Ffos Las and we were hoping to see him finish out his race. He had decent enough form last season, but he never truly saw any of his races out, and had a few little issues. Having given him a wind op, and running him fresh, we hoped he'd be well handicapped off his old form. Unfortunately that wasn't to be, and it looks like some of his old issues might be back to haunt him again