Hitting the woodwork but running well

Both Heronry and Rhythm Star ran blinders yesterday at Wincanton to be 2^nd and 3^rd respectively. Will Featherstone’s 10lbs claim came into good use on Heronry and he gave him a lovely ride. He looked as though he might have nicked it coming to the last, but he got quite tired 100yds from the line, and realistically he needs a few pounds help from the handicapper. Rhythm Star ran her heart out to be 3^rd under her penalty. She was beaten 6 lengths by a horse with the same rating as her but without a penalty – so she ran right up to form, and in fact I thought it was a career best performance. She deserves to take her chance in a listed contest now.

Rhythm Star on the gallops at home.

We had a busy morning today as we took 7 youngsters up to Kempton for a racecourse gallop. Brendan, Daryl, Conor came up to ride and we also had Dave Crosse, Will Featherstone, Page Fuller and young Michael on board. Daryl lead the piece of work on Detroit Blues and they went a good gallop - he has benefitted from an easy time of it through the winter and should be able to win a bumper before going hurdling in the spring. Val De Law was most impressive and I cant wait to get him onto the track. Of the babies Silver Djebel and Our Three Sons look nice prospects, and I was pleased with how Idamay, Star Sovereign and Stage Twenty went. They should all benefit hugely from the trip away from home, and I hope we have a good spring in the bumper department.

Heading out onto the track at Kempton and the racecourse gallop

We run Souriyan tomorrow at Ffos Las on Welsh Champion hurdle day. This looks a good opportunity for us to try and get another win under his belt.  However, it's not a penalty kick and there are a couple of others who need respecting including the penalised Got the Nac Filatore and Arantes who is carrying 10st7 as he is also 4 years old, but doesn’t have a penalty as we do. The ground is heavy, but our lad has handled that on the flat in France, although that wouldn’t be quite like Ffos Las tomorrow.  However, they are on fresh ground tomorrow and it’s the first race, so it's worth taking a slight gamble on that.

Meanwhile Monbeg Theatre runs at Sandown with Brendan on. He again is in serious form, and we hope he might be on the right side of the handicapper. However, it looks an ultra competitive race and so we’ll need some luck in running too. We’ve always liked him, and having brought him along slowly he’s won 3 of his 6 starts for us, and he looked impressive when defying his penalty at Towcester on his latest start. He’s in the deep end tomorrow, but we feel he’s now up to it, and I hope he’s got a serious chance.