IT has been a great week for the yard with three winners since last writing and 19 winners on the board for the season so far.  

Chemical Warfare won for the fourth time since joining us and for the second time in recent weeks up at Sedgefield. He has come out of his race well and there are plenty more opportunities for him in the next few weeks

Pub Crawl made the journey to Sedgefield with Chemical Warfare and ran his best race to date over hurdles to be second. He did battle all the way to the line and if he can build on this effort, he is capable of winning over hurdles. 

I sponsored the final race on the Chepstow card last Friday and was delighted to win it with Lock Out ridden by Gearoid Harney. He is a very tall lad and did well to claim six pounds of bottom weight of 10st 2lb.  We tried to follow up with a quick reappearance on Hereford on Monday but the slight drop in trip on a sharper track was against him.  

On Saturday, we had a very similar scenario to Lock Out at Chepstow with Neon Moon running from just out of the weights in the Native River handicap chase.  

I deliberated with his owners, Garth and Anne, about running him before declarations but with limited opportunities coming up and the forecast for decent ground we decided to let him take his chance and I am glad we did! It was particularly nice for owners Brocade Racing as they sponsored the race in honour of their great Gold Cup and Welsh National winner Native River who was at the track to parade.  

Bashful Boy ran well in the Cesarewitch to be ninth and while not quite as good a finishing position as last year he was only beaten seven lengths.

Tuxedo Junction made a promising hurdling debut at Chepstow to be fifth. He pulled too hard for much of the race but jumped nicely. The same can be said for Harry Junior who had his first ever start in the bumper at Chepstow.  

Our first runners this week were at Worcester on Wednesday where Jurancon makes his hurdling debut and  African Lady runs again in the mares handicap hurdle. On Thursday we are likely to have runners at Wincanton while on Friday Vision De Main and Thanksforthehelp may make their seasonal reappearances.  

We have entries at Newton Abbot on Saturday but these but if it rains hard as forecasted they may not go ahead.  Keep checking the Daily News section of the website for all the latest information on the stable runners.

At the end of October, we have the Newmarket horse in training sales where there will be over 1,000 horses on the market.  We have contacted a lot of the flat trainers and they have sent some recommendations for horses that could make nice hurdlers.  I shall be attending and if anyone wants to get involved or find out more please do not hesitate to get in touch.  Email: [email protected]

My son Jack wasn’t very interested in horses, ponies or racing until the last 10 months and now he wants to be the next A P McCoy! On Sunday, he and pony Tandy embarked on their first step on getting involved in pony racing by attending a training day under jockey coach Rodi Greene.  About 20 kids participated in the day, which included riding flat work and on the gallops, equicisor coaching and education about fitness, balance and team games. The first pony races in the West Country start in the New Year.