A Royal Win!

       Royal Mer wins at Wincanton!
Today there is jumps racing at Hereford and Hexham was abandoned. They are racing on the all-weather at Southwell and there is flat action at Thirsk. In Ireland, Navan was abandoned. The stable have no runners today.

Yesterday we had a busy day with 4 runners at Wincanton. Royal Mer put up another fantastic performance to win for the fifth time over fences this season, his third in a row, winning under Jack Tudor yesterday. Racing off his highest handicap mark yet of 116, he put in another impressive display of jumping and pulled well clear of his rivals once again. He is clearly full of confidence and thriving at the moment and he is an exciting horse to watch. That was his toughest assignment date, but he won with these and who knows how far he can progress. He is only six and the handicapper is likely to have his say again, while in this form I don’t see why he can’t win again! The ground is key so as long as it keeps raining I’m sure we will look for another race for him. There is possibly an opportunity to run him under a 7lb penalty next week, so we will see how he is and what the handicapper is likely to do before making any plans.

In regards to our other other runners yesterday at Wincanton, American Sniper just got a bit stuck in the mud but didn’t run too badly. Only Fools ran her usual honest race, just weakening later on.

 I thought First Lord De Cuet was going to win, but a mistake at the second last put paid to any chance, he was then overtaken on the run in finish third. 

 Looking into the week for the Aintree Festival and the final fields for day one of the festival will be confirmed today, with some of the big races featuring being the Aintree Bowl, Aintree Hurdle, 4-Y-O Juvenile Hurdle and the Manifesto Novices’ Chase.

Jump Jockey Aidan Coleman announced his retirement at the weekend on Nick Luck’s programme, after his horrendous injury in the summer - forced him to retire. Again, it was another jockey who was put into making the decision out of his own hands, but he has been able to walk away from what happened and I think he's lucky in that respect, considering the long effects he will face now. He was lucky enough to be involved with some brilliant horses in his time and he rode 1,246 winners in total over jumps in Britain and Ireland and 5 on the flat so it is a good record if you ask me and I’m sure he’ll take his next challenge in his stride, whatever that may be!

 I went to my friends wedding at the weekend, it was an emotional wedding..

Even the cake was in tiers!

Have a lovely Tuesday!