Downpours!

I am pleased to report that we have managed to avoid the worst of it somehow and the work of the horses hasn’t been affected at all by the adverse conditions (although the staff may not be quite so pleased!).  The all-weather gallops have proven to be worth their weight in gold – they drain beautifully and provide a lovely consistent surface for the horses to gallop on whatever the weather.

The rain has of course resulted in some meetings either being abandoned or run on bottomless ground and it looks like being a fairly quiet week for us on the racing front.  I am at Ludlow this afternoon (Monday) where I will be helping owner and former England rugby star Stuart Barnes celebrate his 50^th birthday, but after that we are just going to have to keep an eye on the skies to decide our next runners.  Looking to the remainder of the week, Sedgefield have already abandoned their meeting for tomorrow and Fontwell  and Wetherby have called off Wednesday’s fixtures, while Uttoxeter have abandon the chases for Thursday’s card and plan to host an all hurdle meeting instead.   It is not just the jumps tracks who are suffering though – Southwell have had to abandon their proposed all-weather meetings for this week due to flooding on the track.  Perhaps they should be looking at the composition of our all-weather gallop?!

Looking back to last week, I was delighted by the win of Grands Crus’ full brother Gevrey Chambertin (pictured above) in a hot novices’ hurdle at Haydock on Friday.  Displaying a really likeable attitude he fought with the eventual runner-up Corrin Wood all the way up the straight and prevailed in a photo-finish.  This was a really good effort conceding 7lbs to the runner-up and he is progressing really well.

We weren’t quite so lucky in the Fixed Brush hurdle on Saturday however.  We had won the race for the previous two years with Grands Crus and Dynaste and we looked to have a couple of solid chances with Knight Pass and Katkeau this time around.  Indeed, the latter was still travelling well when making a terrible mistake at the third last hurdle and he was allowed to come home in his own time after that.  Fortunately he is none the worse for his exertions, although his jockey Conor O’Farrell did twist his knee quite badly in the incident.  Katkeau certainly showed promise on his first start since joining the stable and hopefully he should be able to gain compensation somewhere before too long.

I am sure that many of you will be interested to hear how Grands Crus is following his disappointing reappearance and I can confirm that he is making pleasing progress following a wind-operation.  Leading wind specialist Geoff Lane found a problem and he has since had a minor corrective procedure.  He is progressing well and there is still a chance that he will make the King George at Kempton on Boxing Day, although we will give him all the time he needs.  He is far too good a horse to risk bringing back too quickly, so we will just let him tell us when he is ready.

As previously mentioned, with the prevailing weather conditions running plans are very much up in the air so do keep up to date with all the latest news by viewing Chester’s Daily Chat.