- Tuesday, 12 June 2012 06:58
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
There are four meetings on this afternoon with three on the flat from Lingfield, Brighton and Salisbury and a jumps card at Southwell. We have one runner at Salisbury, Vergrigio who makes his debut for the stable in the 7f handicap at 4.35pm - he will now be partnered by Royston Ffrench who is deputising for the injured Neil Callan. Meanwhile, back over jumps we have two runners at Southwell - Soulard ridden by Tom Scudamore and Water Garden who will be partnered by Timmy Murphy. Water Garden (pictured above) has been running well all season in the handicaps but keeps creeping up the weights as a consequence. It will be interesting to see what happens with the ground (currently good) as they have been watering - any significant rainfall on watered ground could make it very testing indeed.
- Monday, 11 June 2012 07:25
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
The stable enjoyed a nice winner at Worcester on Saturday when Martial Law gained overdue compensation for his Ffos Las fall a couple of starts back when landing the maiden hurdle. Always prominent under Tom Scudamore, he took up the running three out and stayed on well to score a deserved victory - it was a good bit of placing from David, although things will be a bit tougher in handicaps after the assessor saw fit to raise him by 11lbs for his fall. There were some other noteworthy performances from the weekend, including Midnight Tuesday who travelled strongly for much of the race before finishing third in the handicap hurdle from a mark of 128. Arab League also ran well on the level at Newmarket, finishing a close-up fourth in the staying handicap.
- Sunday, 10 June 2012 00:00
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
There are just two jumps meetings on this afternoon at Perth and Worcester and the stable has runners at both meetings. Tom Scu heads north (as usual!) and rides Shoegazer at Perth in the big race, The Perth Gold Cup. It is his only ride of the day, so let's hope that it is a winner otherwise he will have done more than his riding fee in petrol! It's a £20,000 race so it is obviously extremely competitive but our runner seems to be progressive over fences, having won two of his three starts, so we will all be hoping for the best. Over at Worcester Paddy Brennan takes the ride aboard Clever Dick (pictured above), having won on him at Taunton last season. He makes his chasing debut and David looks to have found him a decent opportunity.
- Saturday, 09 June 2012 07:20
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
It looks like being a busy day for the yard with five runners over the sticks at Worcester this afternoon, while we also have a rare flat runner at Newmarket. Tom Scudamore is aboard Kusadasi, Qulinton and Martial Law at Worcester, while young Tom Bellamy gets the leg-up aboard Swing Bill and Midnight Tuesday (pictured above). We look to have a few decent chances today, not least Martial Law, who was arguably one of the unluckiest losers of the season so far when coming to grief at the last at Ffos Las with his race in safe-keeping. He has to contend with an 11lbs higher mark this afternoon but can hopefully still be competitive and gain some compensation for owner Stuart Mercer. Stuart won't know where to look as over at Newmarket his Arab League, who had such a great spell over hurdles last term runs on the level - Neil Callan is a positive jockey booking.
- Friday, 08 June 2012 07:09
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
The stable has one runner this afternoon as Diamond's Return (pictured above) bids to land a four-timer under Conor O'Farrell at Market Rasen. Our eight year old rattled up a quick hat-trick over the space of ten days last month and while he is 21lbs higher than his initial success at Wincanton he still looks to be a worthy favourite. Conor's dad owns the horse so they really are keeping it in the family!
- Thursday, 07 June 2012 07:02
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
Our runner at Cartmel yesterday afternooon Qalinas finished fourth in the conditional jockeys' handicap hurdle under Conor O'Farrell. He travelled well for much of the journey and looked to be travelling better than the winner at one point but he was headed between the last two flights and wasrun out of second place close home. I see that the winner, Jolly Roger is in again at Newton Abbot on Monday and as he escapes a penalty for this success (with it being a boys' race) I would be amazed if he didn't turn up there.
- Wednesday, 06 June 2012 07:33
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
The stable heads over to Cartmel this afternoon with one runner, Qalinas (pictured above) in the conditional jockeys' handicap hurdle. Conor O'Farrell is in the saddle and personally I think that he is hands down the best of these jockeys and Qalinas has produced a couple of solid efforts so far this season. Hopefully he is able to build on those performances and run well again this afternoon. Our only runner yesterday, Katchmore again ran creditably when finishing fourth at Ffos Las and it looks to me as though that extra stone the handicapper put him up for his last success was a bit of an over-reaction. The winner of the race Solaras Exhibition may have to be turned out again quickly under another penalty before the handicapper has a chance to catch up with him.
