Unfortunately Winker now passes Royal Ascot – the next opportunity may be the Prix Jean Prat at Chantilly next month. He worked on Wednesday with Al Qasi – he tired at the end of the gallop and blew the house down afterwards. It’s frustrating as he’s not far off full fitness, but he wasn’t quite going to get there in time. I …
Winker waits
We left Winker out of the Irish 2,000 today – he’s back in work but short of full fitness and it’s too soon for him. He’ll probably go straight to Royal Ascot now. It’s going to be a fairly quiet week runner wise. Scrapper Smith may come out towards the end of the week and he’s a lot better at …
Max bet
The big day arrives for Max and everything has gone as well as it could have. The ground is probably about right. She seems to be spot on and ready to run her race. Her draw (10) looks pretty good – she’ll need a bit of cover and wouldn’t want to be stuck out left or right. No excuses. One …
Racing update…
Some snippets from my conversations this morning; In the Free handicap there is a lot of confidence behind Stimulation. No surprise perhaps as he is the favourite. Pete tells me that Skadrak will like this ground and trip. There are, however, very strong vibes for Virtual who I’m told was unlucky last season and has wintered very well. It may …
Winker pulls out
Pete called this morning with the news – they had gone out with Winker and he was moving ‘like an old man’, a bit hunched and sluggish. The vet had indicated that this was a minor problem, but it wasn’t going to stand up to training in the short term and Pete wanted to back off. No-one disagreed. We have …
Treat those two imposters
It was a big night last night, with Lord Snooty finally justifying our belief in him by winning his maiden in the US in smart style. I went to bed feeling exhilirated. My Blackberry rang early this morning, showing Pete’s name. Pete never rings early unless it is bad news – as I picked it up I was praying it would be about one …
Highs and Lows
It’s a big time of year as an owner, and there are highs and lows. Aintree was ultimately a real mix, and there was a lot of good and bad on Saturday. I didn’t go up as I was at AFC Wimbledon for a match that my wider family were sponsoring in memory of my great uncle, who owned the club in the 60’s …
Watching and waiting
Hope Road ran a good race but just got edged out – frustrating and my luck is out at the moment. He’s at least a half decent horse, and he’s running fairly consistently now. He’ll go away for the year and come back in the autumn – he still has his maiden status and he really ought to be able …
Chapple-Hyam update
I had a long chat with Pete today – I really do need to find some time to go down and watch the horses work, as he is just beginning to wind them up. I haven’t updated my horse list for a while – I own or part own six horses with Pete. The are two 3yos – Winker Watson (as …
Case to be answered
First things first, and the diet’s going ok – 18st3 this morning. I’ve had a headache but nothing worse than that – I still haven’t worked out how I intend to do it, but the one thing I know I must do is break my sugar habit permanently. Thanks all for the encouraging comments. I’m having a fairly quiet patch …