A Challenging Start

2018 has been a funny year to date. We have had some fantastic highs; Prince Of Arran winning in Dubai, Carolinae finishing 2nd in the Fillies and Mares race on All Weather Championship Finals, and Snazzy stamping herself as a potential Royal Ascot 2yr old. However it has also been an incredibly tough start to the turf season as the weather has played havoc with the ground, and the constant rain has meant that keeping the horses healthy is even more difficult.

We have had some very promising performances from nice horses in recent weeks and none more so than the giant Jeremiah who managed to stay on, despite a searching early pace, and ground that would not have been to his liking to finish fourth on his seasonal debut at Newbury. We like him a huge amount and I very much hope that he will be stakes class in time.

Repercussion is another horse who has really impressed this year with two gutsy performances in big field handicaps (Lincoln and Spring Cup) where he finished fifth on both occasions. We are pretty confident that he will improve for better ground and possibly a drop in trip so a tilt at the Victoria Cup could be on the cards for him.

Two old boys also made very encouraging starts to 2018 at the Craven meeting as Accession (third) and Chiefofchiefs (fifth) both showed that age is just a number. Chiefofchiefs is a very talented horse and I am hopeful that we might be able to improve him a bit and creep into the Hunt Cup, a race I think will suit him down to the ground. As for the loveable Accession he is nine years old and very much needs looking after, so his races will be nicely spaced this year. If ever the Bunbury Cup was to come up soft, then he would definitely be in business.

Next week looks to be an exciting one as Prince Of Arran could make his return in the Sagaro (he wont if the ground is soft) while we could see Paco’s Prince run again after a very encouraging stable debut at Kempton. Chiefofchiefs and Jeremiah both have entries as does promising filly Feathery. We haven’t had a winner for a while so lets hope its just around the corner!