26 November 2021
It is a catch twenty-two! As much as we want and need the rain, we never want it when we are riding out in the morning. We had a few heavy downpours this morning, enough that you were able to ring out your clothes! It looks a bit brighter now, and I am not sure that was enough rain to get into the ground. Typically, tomorrow does look miserable on one of our busiest days of the season! We have five runners tomorrow across three meetings. But first, we have three runners today, two at Doncaster and one at Newbury. Lyrical Genius and Moon King head to Doncaster with Sean Quinlan on board. Lyrical Genius making his hurdling debut. Due Reward heads to Newbury in a strong race, but we are hoping for a good run with Paul steering.
Yesterday we had Freethinker and Hoot At Midnight run at Lingfield. Freethinker ran a much improved performance and is certainly heading in the right direction. It looks as though the penny is slowly dropping. The left handed track seemed to allow him to settle from the offset, and he travelled nicely throughout the race. He jumped well and carried himself into the race, just getting a bit green in the battle to the line to come second. If he keeps improving like this, he will be seeing the winning post in no time. He is not the easiest and is a big, tall horse and has taken a lot of growing into himself. Hoot At Midnight ran another creditable race, however Charlie said that they went so quick that it took her a while to get into her rhythm jumping, and they all quickened away on the home bend whereas Hoot just stayed on the same pace. Charlie was very happy with how she felt, he just thought it was a stronger race that the last time. She has had a fabulous season and has been in since March.
Glen Forsa and Scene Not Herd have just headed off to make their long trip up to Newcastle with Jess and Nathan. They will stay over night due to the distance of the journey, however on checking the weather forecast they are expecting heavy snow there tomorrow morning, which is not ideal! Scene Not Herd will be ridden by Johnny Burke and Aidan Coleman will ride Glen Forsa in the rehearsal chase. Alghazaal makes his stable and hurdling debut at Doncaster tomorrow with Bryony Frost taking the ride, he does everything right at home so we are hoping he can put this together on the track. Finally, Byzantium Lad and Stroll On By head to Bangor on Dee. Byzantium Lad may appreciate a little bit more juice in the ground, but he is fit and ready to go for his chasing debut. Stroll On By seems to have improved at home having ran a great race last time out to finish 2nd by a whisker, therefore we have our fingers crossed for a good run. A busy Saturday where we have horses and staff going everywhere. We have such a great team, and it makes it a lot easier on these intense days. Let’s hope we can get a winner!
No runners Sunday, but Illegal Model is entered at Ayr on Monday. Scene Not Herd and Alghazaal are entered at Southwell on Tuesday but will probably not run due to running this weekend, however High Yield also has an entry in the bumper. The Wise Traveller and Carlow Farmer hold entries at Haydock on Wednesday, and George Bancroft, Largy Nights and High Yield are all entered at Market Rasen on Thursday.
It looks to be a miserable weekend, but turn the racing on, have a hot chocolate and relax on the sofa!
