Poole_Master_Lingfield
The stable enjoyed another winner yesterday when Poole Master obliged at Lingfield under Chris Honour.  The ground looked very testing yet our seven year old seemed to handle the going very well and cruised to a comfortable success in this novices' hurdle as his starting price of 30/100 suggested that he should.  He is clearly very useful and is still lightly raced so there is the prospect of further improvement from him.

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Poole_Master_Uttoxeter

The stable has six runners this afternoon - four at our local track Taunton and two at Lingfield.  Fortunately it has warmed up again in so there are no problems envisaged for either meeting.  Kilrye, Lucy's Perfect, Street Entertainer and Moose Moran represent the stable at Taunton and the last named makes his debut for the stable this afternoon.  Moose Moran was a 97 rated flat performer at his best for Sir Henry Cecil and he certainly looks like an interesting recruit.

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Consigliere__Alderluck_gallops

While we may not have any runners on the track today, the pace in the yard keeps up unrelenting with all of the horses to be exercised and schooled.  Fortunately the recent cold snap seems to be behind us, although as you can see from the pictures from Saturday - with our state of the art gallops, the frost doesn't stop us from getting the horses out.

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Red_Sky_in_morning_Dec_11web

It could be a bit of a quiet day on the racing front.  Fakenham abandoned their jumping card yesterday, while Folkestone will face a second inspection this morning at 10am to see if racing can go ahead.  Add to that, the fact that there is no all-weather racing this afternoon and we could quite easily be reliant on Ayr for our racing fix!  We have no runners today, although (weather permitting) we will have runners at Newbury tomorrow.

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On_the_gallops2_jan_12

It's another cold start to the morning (as you can see from the picture of the gallops) and it looks like being a quite day with the stable having no runners this afternoon.

I thought that the stable's runners performed creditably in the main at the weekend without quite getting their heads in front.  The trouble is a few of them look to be in the grip of the handicapper - not least the likeable mare Dream Esteem who keeps going up in the weights for finishing in the frame - she finished a close third at Kempton on Saturday and no doubt will face another hike.  It does seem a little harsh - the horses certainly creep up the ratings a lot quicker than they drop down them and if you are fortunate enough to pinch one, trainers are often forced to run again quickly under a penalty for fear of what the handicapper will do to them.

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I am not sure how welcome trainer Andrew Balding will be when (or if) he ever goes back to Wolverhampton racecourse.  He had runners at the track earlier in the week and then posted on social networking site Facebook that "the best part of going racing at Wolverhampton is leaving!".  I know that it is not the most glamorous track in the world but they were always very helpful to us when MCP was training.  We would often take some horses there to gallop, although I am not sure David will want reminding of that too much - he came off one and was injured - I don't think it could have been too bad though as he didn't want the boot cutting off by the medics!

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On_the_gallops_Jan12

It has been a cold night and it is certainly crisp this morning as you can see from the picture of the gallops.  Wetherby have obviously suffered from the dropping temperatures and have had to abandon this afternoon's fixture, while Kempton are holding a second inspection at 10am ahead of their Lanzarote fixture.

It looks like a typically competitive Saturday afternoon's racing and the yard is represented at Kempton and Warwick with plenty of runners.  Tom Scudamore will be aboard Decoy, a winner at Cheltenham on his penultimate start is favourite for the Lanzarote hurdle at Kempton where he is joined by dual Festival winner Buena Vista - it is a twenty runner handicap and the bookies will bet a big price the field.  Dream Esteem is our other runner at Kempton and she makes her seasonal reappearance after a break of around 300 days - she was running consistently well when last seen and will be partnered by Tom Scudamore.

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