This time next week the waiting will almost be over.  It will be Cheltenham eve and with a contender, Adagio, in the Champion Hurdle, the big race on day one of the Festival, anticipation around the yard is building.  The hard work has largely been done and now it is just a case of keeping him ticking over – I am sure there will be a few sleepless nights between now and then!  We will probably only have a handful of runners, but I have been pleased with the work of those that could take their chances and am looking forward to the meeting getting underway.

We only had a few runners last week, with Crossing Lines faring best of those when finishing runner-up in the 2m5½f handicap hurdle at Wincanton on Wednesday.  Dropping back in trip, he saw his race out very well having made much of the running under Tom Scudamore.  He was only bettered by the well-handicapped Sabrina, to whom he was conceding 9lbs and he certainly deserves to go one better before too long.

The Week Ahead

Looking to this week and we start with a couple of runners this afternoon at Southwell.  Via Dolorosa appreciated the sharper nature of the track and put up a tremendous performance to make all the running under a well-judged ride from Tom Scudamore.  He had shown great promise in a couple of runs over the Grand National fences at Aintree and it was tremendous to see him reproduce that over regulation fences.

Ladykiller runs in the 2m4½f handicap hurdle and I am hopeful this longer trip will bring about some improvement on his second start in a handicap.  A good horse over staying distances on the flat in Germany, he is still open to further improvement after only three hurdling starts.

Grangeclare Glory will run in the 2m3f handicap hurdle at Fontwell on Wednesday.  He has been in good form this season, although he was below-par at Sandown last month on ground that was probably too testing for his liking.

We have plenty of entries at Wincanton, including a couple for the David Pipe Racing Club, Kotki and Miss M, whilst the likes of New Age Dawning, El Paso Wood, Seventeen O Four, Pachacuti and Red Happy feature among the entries at Exeter on Friday.  Promising dual winner, Kingofthewest could contest the valuable EBF final at Sandown on Saturday.

Preview Night

Talking of Exeter, I will be appearing on the panel of their Cheltenham Festival preview after racing on Friday.  It is free to attend but you will have to pre-book via their website.

I appeared on the panel at Tiverton golf club last week and I am delighted to report that the event raised over £4,000 for the charity Hospiscare, which is a tremendous effort, so well done to everyone involved with organising it.

Disney Documentary

We were joined by the ITV cameras last week as they were filming for a forthcoming documentary programme about Captain Guy Disney.  The Afghan war veteran became something of a phenomenon in racing circles when steering former Pond House resident Rathlin Rose to victory in two Royal Artillery’s and a Grand Military Gold Cup at Sandown despite losing a leg below the knee during the war.

The producers have already aired an excellent programme about Hollie Doyle and other sports personalities and this documentary will tell the story of this inspirational man.  I will certainly be tuning in.

Let’s Play Darts!

Finally, I would like to thank Sean Martin and ITV for arranging for some of my team to have a night out at the darts in Minehead last week.  They love their ‘arrers and as you will see from the following photograph of Gerry Supple, he really got into the spirit of things with his fancy dress outfit, although he struggled to match Ken Rixon’s Dead Pool gimp suit (I won’t ask why he had it)!  The lads had some great seats next to where the players made there entrances and they enjoyed a great night out.  I was particularly impressed there was a full complement of staff the next morning.

 

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