07/05/23

Julia and John are in the middle of a two-week cruise and phone signal has been a bit iffy so it'll be me, Ross, writing the blog this week and hopefully it can bring the yard some luck as we have a few runners.

Shelley is keeping things running very smoothly in the yard and all the team are pulling their weight to keep the show on the road and it would be great if we could be rewarded with a winner this week.
I'll be taking Stintino Sunset down to Windsor on Monday for the lucky last and hopefully the soft ground is what she needs to show some form again after a few disappointing runs recently. She ran well on heavy ground when second at Leicester last year so our hopes are pinned on that being the answer.

On Thursday we have Corporate Raider at Southwell and he too will be looking to bounce back from a bad run last time. He came back from Chelmsford a bit sore and obviously didn't like the surface there so going back to Southwell where he made a promising debut for us could see him fare much better as he is still unexposed over this distance.

Friday's entry is Queen's Company at Nottingham and the unsettled forecast for the week is not concern for her as she loves soft ground and made a very encouraging seasonal return at Kempton last time. The race didn't pan out right for her but she still caught the eye and it should have put her spot on for this race.

We will have a few entries on Saturday but things will depend on ground conditions.
Alibaba is a bit of a 'Goldilocks' horse when it comes to the going as he doesn't want it too firm and he doesn't want it too soft - its got to be just right at Leicester for him to run. It was great to see some of his old spark at Nottingham last time and he ran a good race before getting tired towards the finish. The handicapper has given him a decent drop in the weights and he could be  ready to capitalise on it now.

The other entries will be at Nottingham.
Macho Son went close to winning at the course last month and then he found the ground had dried out a bit too much at Windsor last time. Hopefully coming back here on soft ground will see him close.
Fen Tiger and Smokey Malone will both be entered in the  1m6f handicap but they want different ground so won't run against each other.
Fen didn't stay the 2m trip last week so a drop back to this distance is more his cup of tea but he wants soft ground.
If it dries out a bit, Smokey can run and he should run another solid race at a course he has won at before.He ran better than we thought having puled hard last week and he is a reliable horse when in the mood he is currently in.

Julia and John are back in Southampton port on Friday morning and hopefully they'll have sone good news by the time they arrive!