I am thrilled that we've started December off on the same note that we ended November, as Kalahari Queen won her maiden at Lingfield last week in emphatic style. Once again, Gavin was very good on her, and filled her with confidence and she won going away. She was pretty green on debut at Chepstow and although she has improved since, she still has so much more to give and looks a really smart young horse.
Kalahari Queen won her novice hurdle in style.
Naranja ended November on a winning note and she thoroughly deserved to get her head in front having run well over hurdles to date. The handicapper has left her mark unchanged, and she’ll now graduate into handicap company and she should be another to win again before long. We might look to run her at Fontwell on Boxing Day.
Naranja wins again.
I thought Three Ways was another to improve from his seasonal debut when he was 2nd again at Wetherby. It won’t be long before he finds his head in front over fences and he might be one for the 4-mile novice chase at the Festival in March. I was delighted that Floral Bouquet ran well to be 3rd on her hurdling debut at Towcester. She is a new horse to us, having shown promise last season for Gillian Boanas, and I think she could be quite smart. Hogan’s Height improved for his debut over fences to be a close 2nd at Towcester as well. He’s now been 2nd in three of his five starts over obstacles and must surely be winning shortly!
Floral Bouquet runs well on stable debut.
Despite all the snow this week, thankfully we’ve managed to have the horses out exercising each day, and although we’ve had to change the routine, at least they’ve not lost any fitness and we’ve kept ticking over. It is at times like this that our staff really rally round and the teamwork they show is marvellous – I have a great team behind me, and they all work very hard to keep the show on the road.
The team working extra hard in the snow!