Katchmore made it two wins from two starts since joining the yard with success at Exeter on Tuesday under conditional jockey Tom Bellamy.  Tom gave him a good positive ride to make all the running and score decisively, although he did nothing more than he was entitled to on form.  Taking into account Tom’s 10lbs claim, he was actually running from a 3lbs lower mark than when winning at Taunton the previous week.

That success was Tom’s fifth career win under rules and now his claim is reduced to 7lbs.  He was able to claim 10lbs up until his fifth winner while riding for the stable and that is a huge chunk of weight when you think about it.  Tom is a very accomplished young lad and excellent value for 10lbs; as I am sure he will be continue to be with his 7lbs claim.  You will certainly be hearing more about him in the future.

On Friday we enjoyed an unexpected but welcome (over) 800/1 treble at Newbury when Goulanes, Dream Esteem and Midnight Tuesday all obliged.  Goulanes (pictured right), a winning Irish point to pointer made a pleasing debut for the yard when landing a warm looking maiden hurdle on his first start for the yard and he will now be put away until next season – he should stay further than this 2m5f trip and he looks to be a nice prospect.

Dream Esteem showed herself to be a mare in form by landing the two mile handicap hurdle on the card in determined fashion from a career high mark of 135 under Tom Scudamore.  This was an excellent effort and she is clearly on an upward curve.

Midnight Tuesday completed the hat-trick when successful in a very eventful hands and heels handicap hurdle for conditional and amateur jockeys under Tom Bellamy.  He managed to steer clear of trouble as three pursuers all fell independently, in the straight and stayed on well to win going away.  The horse appeared to be suited by this slightly less testing ground and hopefully now we have this initial success under our belt, he will be able to build on it.

That win took us to 88 winners for the campaign and while it is not the be-all and end-all, it would be fantastic if we could reach the magic 100 mark for the season.  We still have five weeks to get there, so we will be giving it our best shot.

I am looking forward to welcoming a television crew next week who will be filming part of the build-up to this year’s Grand National with James May, as well as a section for his series Man Lab.  James is most famous for his work as “Captain Slow” on BBC’s popular motoring show Top Gear and I would have thought that he was used to a few more horsepower, but it will certainly be interesting to meet him.  I’m sure whatever they have lined up will certainly be entertaining, so keep your eyes peeled during the build-up to the big one!

Talking of the Grand National, with less than three weeks to go I am pleased to report that the preparation of Junior (pictured left) is coming along well and he remains firmly on course for Aintree.  The Package, who ran such a great race after a long absence to finish a close fourth in the JLT Speciality Chase at the Cheltenham Festival has taken a little longer to get over his race than we would have hoped.  We are still hopeful that he will make the line-up, so I would advise any ante-post punters to hold fire until bookmakers are offering the non-runner, no bet concession.

Swing Bill, who is 43^rd in the list of weights for the Grand National and guaranteed to be at least a reserve on the day, is almost certain to get in the final line-up.  He is currently for sale to stay within the yard and represents a rare opportunity for someone to purchase an intended Grand National runner.  If you would like further information, please feel free to drop me a line at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , or contact my office on 01884 840715.