A week without jumps racing and I have to admit, I am having withdrawal symptoms!  The break in the summer programme is great for the jockeys, who can enjoy a well-earned break, but I will be pleased to get back to it this weekend when the jumps racing resumes at Market Rasen and Perth on Saturday.  The yard had been in great form and I hope to pick up where we left off.

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       Lady Reset Winner at Stratford

After a relaxing week in Portugal, spent with the family and the in-laws, I am back refreshed and looking forward to the season ahead.  Despite there being a couple of weeks’ sabbatical from jump racing, the pace around the yard has stepped up a gear, with a great majority of the horses you can expect to see this winter, back from their summer breaks looking big and well and commencing some light work. 

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With soaring temperatures last week, the race programme was rightly truncated and as such, we were limited to eight runners across four fixtures.  Although we were not among the winners, five of those reached the frame, all chipping in with some prize money.

We managed to beat the searing heat during the early part of last week with all of the staff coming in an hour early before the temperatures began to climb.  As such, all of the horses were able to maintain their normal routines and I am grateful to all of the members of my team for their efforts during some uncomfortable conditions.

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Another week has passed and since last writing, I can report another winner to add the season’s tally and another five seconds!

Texard (pictured above) was the emphatic winner of his race at Uttoxeter last Wednesday, following up his previous victory at the course last month. He was stepping up in trip from two miles to 2m4f but he bowled along in front and put in and exemplary round of jumping to win as he pleased. Watching the race he looked like he was just ‘lobbing’ along but he had all his rivals in trouble as they jumped the fourth last. Our seven year old probably found the Market Rasen race coming to soon after this on Saturday so we can put a line through that and there is hopefully more to come from this recent acquisition in the future.

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Despite a week with only a handful of jumps fixtures, our good start to the season continued with the successes of d’Jango and Oceanline (pictured above)taking our seasonal tally to 20, which is well ahead of where we were this time last year.  Add in several more places and an impressive two thirds of all runners from Pond House so far this season have reached the frame.

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With the jumps racing calendar slowing down for a few days this week, we are going to be a bit quieter.  Mind you, we do still have three runners today and another three tomorrow, so it would be great if we could add another winner or two before then.  The horses are still running extremely well and another couple of victories, courtesy of Lock Out and Al Roc took our seasonal tally to 18 and consolidated our second position in the trainers’ table at this early stage.

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Despite our busy start to the campaign, I was able to steal away for a few days last week as we went to Portugal with some friends for some much needed r&r and I will be on my travels again later this week as I will be heading across the Channel for the sales at Deauville.  In the meantime the horses continue to run well and a further two winners last week took our seasonal total to 16.

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