Only one place to start on this latest blog and that is with Mysteree putting up a career best effort to win the Paxtons Exclusively Kverneland Chase Class 2, ridden by Brendan Powell for owner Lynne Maclennan. Handy throughout he jumped brilliantly to go on to win by 8 lengths a fantastic performance from the 11 year old who just seems to be getting better with age! He certainly made the trip home easier for Bella who looks after him and went all the way up to Kelso with him. The main aim is to try and get him high enough in the weights to get into the Grand National and a performance like this certainly helps. The next target will be the Beecher chase over the national fences in April so hopefully another good performance there will be enough to see him get in.
Mysteree and Brendan Powell power up the Kelso straight
Also on Saturday we sent Voila Eric up to Kelso for his first run over fences he didn’t run as well as we had hoped so we will get him home and see where to go next with him. On Saturday we also sent Northern Beau and Some Chaos to Cheltenham, Northern Beau ran a great race in conditions that didn’t suit she finished 6th in a very competitive 2m chase. Some chaos went back over hurldes in a novice hurdle having had such a good season last season over fences but unfortunately the ground was far to heavy for him he didn’t really enjoy it, he still managed to finish fourth but we certainly wont be running him in those again conditions any time soon.
The season is in full swing and the horses have been in great form, Ask Himself, Thor De Cerisy and Rosie and Millie all finished second in there novice hurdles on their first starts of the season giving us great hope with them for this season and beyond. Smiths Cross finished third on his first start over fences a couple of cleaner jumps would have seen him go very close. Mr Chua finished third in his first bumper only beaten a couple of lengths for owner Jimmy Chua a great first start for this 3 year old. Kingswell Theatre ran a good race to be 5th in the Durham National carrying a lot of weight this run would have put him spot on for the cross country race at Cheltenham in November. Monbeg Aquadude has his first run for the best part of a year for owner Mark Blandford this was an encouraging run from a big horse who has had plenty of problems and will come on for his run. Lawmaking continued his consistent season with another second at Kempton ridden by Liam Keniery he was unlucky to bump in to a very well handicapped horse but he ran a great race, he may well have another go over hurdles next.
Mr Chua and Gabby after his encouraging third in his bumper.
The horses have been in great form to start the season and we still have a few exciting horses yet to run, the round gallop has been a major help in getting to horses looking and running better than ever…..Long may it continue!