New Dawning

        Remastered Winner at Aintree

Good morning all.  A strange feeling this morning as I came into work knowing I would be without by colleague James who has moved onto pastures new with Land rover and Jaguar.  We have been working together for over 14 years and like many of you, I shall miss his terrible jokes!  I shall obviously miss a lot more about him than that but I would like to wish him well in his new venture and I have no doubt he will still be around in some form or another with the yard in the future and we will keep in touch.  I am also sorry folks that you will have to put up with me writing this daily column for the foreseeable, I don't write as well as James but I shall try my best to keep you informed of the Daily News and entertained!

It was a great weekend for the stable with a lovely double at Aintree on Saturday.  Man At Work won a competitive novice hurdle on stable debut under Tom Scu.  Bought from Cheltenham Sales, he had fallen in his only start in an Irish point to point but he was running with promise that day.  Since arriving with us he has done nothing but please and impress, but it is not until they go and do it on the track that you can be sure.  He is a lovely big four year old with a super attitude and he is a very exciting prospect going forwards.  It was a quickfire double as Remastered scored in the following race, the Pertemps handicap hurdle over three miles under David Noonan.  Third in this race last year, it was once again more of a prep race for the Hennessy, now known as the Coral Handicap Chase at Newbury.  Further wind surgery this summer has helped our nine year old and he jumped and travelled really well and was eased down to win cosily in the end.  He has come out of the race fine and all roads lead to Newbury.  Gericault Roque ran in the same race, again using it as a stepping stone for the Coral Handicap Chase.  He was perhaps a little disappointing but he should improve for the outing and the plan is still very much for him to head to Newbury next time where I am sure a return to fences will be much more to his liking.

         Man At Work Winner at Aintree

We ran two horses in the Sefton Chase over the National fences, Al Roc completed the course last year but did not look to enjoy the fences this time.  Abaya Du Mathan was travelling and jumping really nicely before getting the Canal Turn all wrong and this seemed to knock the stuffing out of him.  Both horses have returned home safe and well and can be back in the winners enclosure once their sights are lowered slightly.  Meanwhile, Red Happy ran well in the Badger Ales Chase at Wincanton.  This was the most competitive race he has contested for us and he held is own and kept galloping all the way to the line to finish fifth.  He seems to have come out of that race well and can be found easier winning opportunities.

In Sunday's action, Keppage returned the the racetrack after over 600 days off and ran well before getting a little tired from the second last.  It was good to have him back and there will be plenty of improvement to come from him going forwards.  Unfortunately, Ramses De Teillee and Gwencily Berbas did not get to run in their Veterans chase with racing at Sandown being abandoned after just three races due to waterlogging!  The weather seems to go from one extreme to the other!  While frustrating, David was on course with the inspection party and they all felt it was the right decision to abandoned racing as it was not safe.  Ramses De Teillee could now head to Cheltenham next weekend for the 3m3F handicap chase, a race he has won and run well in in the past.

Conditions were similarly testing over in Wales at Ffos Las.  Paricolor made is seasonal reappearance in the 2m7f handicap hurdle.  He ran well to finished third, just getting a little tired from the last.  He should improve a little for this outing and there will be plenty of fun to be had with him over the winter.

There are no runners from the stable today and in fact jumps racing at Carlisle has been abandoned due to waterlogging.  There is some jumps action at Kempton accompanied by an all-weather card at Wolverhampton.  Have a great day everyone and I will get on the case looking for a good joke for tomorrow morning!