20th February 2015 - 2nd is so close yet so far away....

This time last year we were on the eve of Present View winning at Kempton and booking his place at the Cheltenham Festival which in turn meant we secured our first festival winner….. this year we were aiming him at the BetBright Chase which is at Kempton tomorrow until he picked up that hind limb injury. He’s in a controlled exercise regime at the moment and will be back fighting fit for the autumn.

In the meantime we are looking forward to this years Cheltenham Festival with a handful of entries, but our main hope looks to be Souriyan who runs in the Fred Winter on the Wednesday. He won so well at Exeter on New Years Day and was very unlucky to be nabbed on the line at Ffos Las, but the Racing Post put forward a good case for him today…..our dream has begun again, and having tasted festival success, we’re hungry for more.

Our horses seem to be running fantastically at the moment, but rather unfortunately they are all finding one too good! We have now had five 2nds and an almost certain winner fall at the last, from our last 8 runners – its all getting a bit frustrating. However, I cant complain as they are in good order, and it will surely only be a matter of time that our patience pays off.

Jean Fleming ran a very courageous race to be 2^nd at Ffos Las last weekend in atrocious conditions, and Tea Caddy ran well to be 2^nd at Taunton earlier this week. The handicapper had given her a chance and we dropped her in grade, but as ever I am sure he’ll only put us up again despite not winning – I don’t mind going up for winning a race, but going up for being 2^nd does annoy me!

We run Midnight Silver on Sunday at Fontwell, and she should have every chance. She ran well to be 2^nd at Wetherby last time, and has improved since….so I hope she can take on the boys.

We schooled Val de Law over fences again this week after his last flight tumble at Exeter earlier this month. I am pleased to say that his confidence hadn’t been shaken and he looked very good. We’ll take him to Leicester now on 6^th March for a beginners chase and then I’d hope we can have a look at a decent handicap for him.