WE HAVE not added to our tally of winners over the last few days with the weather putting paid to some plans, and from our very few runners we have had three seconds since last writing.
Pachacuti bounced back from a below par effort on his seasonal return with a good performance at Wincanton, just losing out in a prolonged duel up the straight. He appreciated the return to three miles and he did nothing wrong in defeat, probably just bumping into a well-handicapped rival on old form. He has come out of the race well and it will not be too long before he will be back out on the track again.
Jurancon finished second at Exeter on Friday. While disappointing not to win, they think a lot of the winner and we were perhaps not at our best. We are probably better going left-handed and he will appreciate slightly further than two miles. I do not think we lost too much in defeat trying to give away weight with a penalty and he seems fine after the race.
We also had a second at Wadebridge point to point on Sunday with Fighter Allen running with promise on his pointing debut. He gave Lukke Morris as nice spin round and finished behind the useful favourite, The Kings Writ. Horse and jockey came back with smiles on their faces having enjoyed themselves and there is plenty more fun to be had on the pointing circuit this season. Sidi Ismael ran well for a long way under Martin McIntyre in the Men’s Open but ‘Fly’ pulled him up when he got tired towards the end.
Storm Darragh unfortunately caused the abandonment of both of our intended meetings at Aintree and Chepstow on Saturday. King Turgeon was due to run in the Becher chase over the National fences and I hope they may be able to reschedule the race, perhaps to their Boxing Day fixture?
While we wait to hear any news of whether it might be re-scheduled, we have made an entry for King Turgeon at Cheltenham on Friday of this week so we will see what happens.
I must take this opportunity to thank the staff for all of their efforts over the weekend in the wake of Storm Darragh. It was difficult conditions riding out on Saturday morning but we got all the horses exercised on the gallops and back in their stables safely. We lost power for 24 hours at the yard but the backup generator kicked in and did its job.
Shot Boii ran well to be third in the staying chase at Lingfield on Monday afternoon. Our next runners will be on Thursday where we have entries at Taunton and Warwick. Tuxedo Junction is likely to run in the 2-mile novice’s hurdle, while Lady Balko has entries at both Taunton and Warwick. Lock Out and Chauffeur Driven are both entered in the three-mile handicap hurdle on the Taunton card and are likely to run.
King Turgeon, Eden Du Houx, Gold in the Rivers and Thanksforthehelp are our four entries at Cheltenham on Friday while Belfrina, Yggdrasil and Itseemslikeit hold entries at Doncaster. Keep checking the Daily News on the website for all the latest information on the stable runners.
Well done to Rian Corcoran who got off the mark for the point-to-point season on Sunday with a winner at Wadebridge. It was a competitive race but he rode Itacare well to win in the colours of Somerset Racing (the same carried by King Turgeon).