Red_Sherlock_Southwelll
                 Red Sherlock

Relief, delight and huge excitement are just a few of the emotions I have experienced over the weekend! Although I did not have quite as many runners numerically as in recent weekends, two of my best young horses ran and maintained their winning records.  Kings Palace put together a very taking performance to win a competitive novice hurdle at Cheltenham on Saturday.  I have always thought a lot of our five year old and having won at Fontwell and then nicely at Cheltenham in October, with the form of both races being boosted there was pressure for him to enhance his reputation, and boy did he deliver!  Under a great ride from Tom Scu his jumping was exemplary and he galloped on relentlessly to score in style.  His odds have now shortened for the Albert Bartlett novice hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival and this will indeed be his target come March although he will have an entry in Neptune as well.  He seems to have come out of the race fine and he may have one more run before Cheltenham although I would not be afraid if he did not run again before then either.

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Prideofthecastle_Exeter_web

It was a quiet start to the week with the first runners from the stable coming on Thursday at Wincanton, although come the weekend it was all hands on deck with eleven runners at Sandown and Aintree.  The stable enjoyed a nice winner at Exeter on Friday courtesy of Prideofthecastle and I thought there were a number of other praiseworthy performances as well, not least from Red Seventy, Home Run and Swing Bill.

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un_temps_pour_tout_web

It has certainly been a hectic week both on and off the racecourse.  There were a number of notable performances from the likes of Weather Babe and Shotavodka as well as the success of Heath Hunter, an exciting sales purchase and not to mention the small matter of a Sir Peter O’Sullevan lifetime achievement award for my father.

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Gevrey_Chambertin_Haydock_web

Well, as weekends go I have to admit that we have had worse!  Gevrey Chambertin (pictured above) secured our third success in four years in the valuable Fixed Brush handicap hurdle at Haydock, while Dynaste posted a personal best with his cracking run in the Betfair Chase.  Doctor Harper and Sir Frank recorded a double for the yard at Exeter on Sunday ensuring that the good form of the stable continued.

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  dellarca_cheltenham

Excuse me paraphrasing an old Dinah Washington classic song, but rarely has a truer word been spoken than ‘What a diff'rence a day made, twenty-four little hours’.  Following a couple of what can only be described as disappointing days at Cheltenham’s Open Meeting, you can imagine the sense of relief when Home Run landed the first race of the final day, so to actually finish up as top trainer at the meeting with four winners almost beggars belief!

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Doctor_Harper_Exeter

What an amazing few weeks it promises to be for racing -  not only has there been the small matter of Tony McCoy riding his 4,000th winner, the standard of racing is getting better with each passing week and this weekend it steps up another notch with Cheltenham’s Open Fixture.  The stable has a rich history of success at this meeting throughout the years and I was fortunate enough to supplement my father’s eight wins by landing the Paddy Power Gold Cup with Great Endeavour in 2011.  We have a strong team assembled to try to continue that tradition this year.

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Pleasant_Company_Ascot_web
With the season getting into full swing now, I am pleased to report that the stable remains in good form.  Indeed, four winners over the course of the last week means that our seasonal tally now stands at 29 – a favourable comparison to this time last year.   Furthermore, the victories came from some of the promising youngsters that I had been so hopeful of at the beginning of the season and bodes very well for the remainder of the campaign.

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