23rd December 2015

A beautiful morning with sunshine! The mares hurdle race at Fontwell re-opened as only 4 have declared. We considered declaring Lamanver Alchemy but decided to wait for Wetherby. The Fontwell race looks poor bar one other, we have reservations of how Alchemy would handle the track given she’s a long striding filly and Fontwell is sharp enough. What I did learn is that re-opening a race for 30 more minutes isn’t ideal. Owners need to be contacted as do jockey agents. It all takes time and 30 minutes isn’t very long when all have to be consulted.

Those that worked yesterday had an easy day, we schooled all the 3 year olds and Legal Exit. Tommie O’Brien and Zac Baker rode them all, 10 in total. Charlie Brooks and Chris Palmer were here to watch the 3 year olds. It is always interesting to hear people’s views given they don’t see them day in day out. I shouldn’t think Charlie has seen them for 6 weeks and it is amazing how much they can change in that time. We aren’t disappointed with any of them.

I avoided a visit to Ledbury but will have to make a trip tomorrow; instead I changed the fences for hurdles on the schooling strip and harrowed the gallops.

My mother-in-law tells me “my balls will get much better with age”.