Winner for Rian

              Rian Corcoran Winner

We have not added to our winners tally in the last few days with the weather putting pay to some plans and from our very few runners we have had three seconds since last writing.  Pachacuti bounced back from a below par effort on his seasonal return with a good performance at Wincanton, just losing out in a prolonged duel up the straight.  He appreciated the return to three miles and he did nothing wrong in defeat, probably just bumping into a well-handicapped rival on old form.  He has come out of the race well and it will not be too long before he will be back out on the track again.

Jurancon finished second at Exeter on Friday.  While disappointing not to win, they think a lot of the winner and we were perhaps not at our best.  We are probably better going left-handed and he will appreciate slightly further than two miles.  I do not think we lost too much in defeat trying to give away weight with a penalty and he seems fine after the race.  He remains a leading novice and can resume winning ways next time.

We also had a second at Wadebridge point to point on Sunday with Fighter Allen running with promise on his pointing debut.  He gave Lukke Morris as nice spin round and finished behind the useful favourite, The Kings Writ.  Horse and jockey came back with smiles on their faces having enjoyed themselves and there is plenty more fun to be had on the pointing circuit this season.  Sidi Ismael ran well for a long way under Martin McIntyre in the Men’s Open but ‘Fly’ pulled him up when he got tired towards the end.  He has not run for a while and he will improve for the run.

Storm Darragh unfortunately caused the abandonment of both of our intended meetings at Aintree and Chepstow on Saturday.  King Turgeon was due to run in the Becher chase over the National fences and I hope they may be able to reschedule the race, perhaps to their Boxing Day fixture?  It would be a great shame not to have this historic race at all this season but I do understand it is not quite as simple to say they are going to run it then!  Security reasons have been cited as one of the main big issues that may be hard to sort to run the race over the Christmas period and when you think about it, they would a lot more staff/police help to run a race on the National course, which has a very large perimeter.  While we wait to hear any news of whether it might be re-scheduled, we have made an entry for King Turgeon at Cheltenham on Friday of this week so we will see what happens.  The lorry had to set off for Aintree on Saturday morning with the track inspecting at 7.30am.  Thankfully, they called it off a little earlier than that and our lorry was able to turn around at Bristol.  We did not have to leave for Chepstow at all and with both Severn Bridges closed it may have been a little difficult to get there had it gone ahead in any case!

Storm Darragh

I must take this opportunity to thank the staff for all of their efforts over the weekend in the wake of Storm Darragh.  It was difficult conditions riding out on Saturday morning but we got all the horses exercised on the gallops and back in their stables safely.  We did not have much rain but the winds were strong and gusty and temperatures were chilly!  Thankfully, there was relatively little damage at the yard but there was plenty of trees down locally and many people were without power.  We lost power for 24 hours at the yard but the backup generator kicked in and did its job. 

This Week

Shot Boii ran well to be third in the staying chase at Lingfield on Monday afternoon.  Our next runners will be on Thursday where we have entries at Taunton and Warwick.  Tuxedo Junction is likely to run in the 2-mile novice’s hurdle.  He has run well in two starts over jumps to date and look very capable of getting off the mark over hurdles.  Lady Balko has entries at both Taunton and Warwick.  These are her last opportunities to run under a seven-pound penalty following her win at Plumpton last week and she could take up one of these engagements or we may wait until Cheltenham on Saturday where she also holds an entry. Lock Out and Chauffeur Driven are both entered in the three-mile handicap hurdle on the Taunton card and are likely to run.  Gentleman Toboot was due to run at Chepstow on Saturday until it got abandoned and he is entered in the Bumper at Warwick on Thursday but we may wait a little longer, for Ffos Las next week. 

On Friday, we did have entries at all three jumps meetings, Bangor, Cheltenham and Doncaster but with the chases having just been abandoned at Bangor on Monday afternoon due to waterlogging, we will no longer be going there!  King Turgeon, Eden Du Houx, Gold in the Rivers and Thanksforthehelp are our four entries at Cheltenham on Friday while Belfrina, Yggdrasil and Itseemslikeit hold entries at Doncaster.  Belfrina is an exciting new three year old to the yard who could make her hurdling debut.  She won a maiden flat race in Ireland at the Curragh and has settled in nicely since arriving and is a name to follow.  Keep checking the Dily News on the website for all the latest information on the stable runners.

Winner for Rian

Well done to Rian Corcoran who got off the mark for the point-to-point season on Sunday with a winner at Wadebridge.  It was a competitive race but he rode Itacare well to win in the colours of Somerset Racing (the same carried by King Turgeon).  Itacare is part of the Corcoran family and takes part in all Pony Club activities as well as being a racehorse!  Rian is a talented young novice jockey and is a name to follow for the future both on the point to point circuit and under rules.