19th February 2014

We've not had many runners over the last few weeks mainly due to the flooding, but it was lovely to see Monbeg Theatre winning his bumper at Market Rasen on Sunday.  Sam T-D kicked off the bend as we knew he stayed well, and he picked up and won nicely.  He's not really a bumper horse, and so I am very much looking forward to next season with him, where he should be pretty smart over hurdles....

Unfortunately Joanne One ran a bit flat at Kempton in a "jumpers bumper" - I was hoping to run her in a listed contest at Sandown the previous week, but that was off so we decided to give her a spin on the flat.....it wasn't one of my best ideas!  Heyho - we'll change our aim now and give her a small wind op and then freshen her up for the mares novice hurdle final at Newbury on 22nd March.

We took Tea Caddy up to Wetherby yesterday for an eventful novice chase - she was beaten only 2 lengths into 4th, but that only tells half the story.  She was almost brought down at half way but recovered to be back up with the leaders turning into the straight.  However, she was outpaced when they quickened and was 15 lengths off them at the 2nd last.  However, the leaders soon began to tire, and we stayed on relentlessly but couldn't quite get there....another 50 yards and we would have been in front! 

We have also run Buxom in a couple of these "jumpers bumpers" and she should have won at Southwell on Monday, in what turned out to be a shocking race.  However, we got the tactics all wrong, and she was trapped in on the rail with no racing room when the leaders quickened....we stayed on all the way to the line to finish 4th, but never had a chance of winning.  That's flat racing for you!!