Wednesday 26th July 2017 - summer winners and summer holidays over......

Thankfully, the horses have continued to be in form this month and its lovely to see another couple of winners this week keeping the score board ticking throughout the quieter summer months!

Our Three Sons made it 3 wins from his last 4 starts with a fluent display of hurdling from the front at Stratford last weekend.  He was once again given a fine ride from Page Fuller as he won by nose!  In fairness, the second horse made a mistake at the last and gave us a second chance but we've had plenty of occasions when we've not had the rub of the green, so it's great when it goes your way!

Our Three Sons gets his nose in front where it counts.

Adrrastos followed up at Worcester on Tuesday as he won in fine style on his chasing debut under Aidan Coleman.  He jumped beautifully and won pretty cosily in the end, and he could be very much on an upward curve.

Adrrastos wins on his chasing debut.

We went very close to making it three wins in three days as Lord Topper was only just denied at Uttoxeter.  Stepped up in trip, he ran a terrific race to be run out of it by a horse that was 3lbs ahead of his mark.  Unfortunately, we didn't have the run of the race and we lost a shoe, but we jumped the last upsides and still had every chance.  It bodes well for the future and I think he'd jump a fence too, which would open up a lot of opportunities being only a 4-year-old too as he'd pick up all the allowances.

Lord Topper is narrowly denied another win.

We also ran Between the Waters at Stratford last weekend where he finished 4th.  He travelled really well (probably too well) in behind the pace and he jumped efficiently and quickly, but flattened out when they quickened up from 3 out and was in the end run out of 3rd late on.  He didn't quite stay and so we need to drop back in trip.  He has now been placed in 7 of his 10 starts under rules so surely deserves to get his head in front sooner rather than later!  Unfortunately, one of his current owners is having to drop out of the partnership, so there is now 25% available in this consistent performer.  Do let me know if you might be keen as now is the time to join as he's on the verge of winning!

I ended last month saying I can't wait to see Fact of the Matter run in the Summer Cup at Uttoxeter earlier this month.  I remember Stan Mellor teaching me as a boy when learning to race ride that races can't be won at the start, but they can be lost and unfortunately our luck was out after the initial false start when Fact of the Matter dwelt at the standing start and jumped off at the back!  Having jumped off near enough last, he's run quite well to finish in mid division, if we'd jumped off in mid division then without a shadow of a doubt we'd have been in the money.  Anyway, he's just undergone a small wind op and will be back later in the summer.

The winter horses are now coming back in thick and fast as the summer holidays finish and all the trotting is well under way.  Talking of summer holidays - Lucy and I had a lovely week away in France with the children and rest of the family.  We were just outside of Mirepoix, which was beautiful, but the weather was a little mixed......which probably wasn't a bad thing as it meant that the children could be outside all the time without it being too hot!  So we're all refreshed (horses and humans) and raring for the season to really kick into gear now.