13/12/20

Unfortunately our recent sequence of runners finishing first-last-first-last came to an end this week as Valetta Sunset could only finish mid-division at Chelmsford on Thursday evening. Alibaba had finished at the back of the field earlier in the week and it was pretty clear that his batteries are flat after a long season having been on the go since the start of the year and throughout the lockdown.

I was looking forward to having two runners at Wolverhampton on Tuesday but Engrave was very unlucky to be balloted out - having needed two of the entries above her to not declare, she still missed the ballot by one! It's rare this happens and frustrating when it does.
It means we'll be heading there with just the one runner in Productive. He folded very tamely on his first run for us last time so we'll try some hold-up tactics on him this time around and it would be good just to see him finishing well at the end and gaining some confidence which he is lacking at the moment. It's very early days in his career so I just want to get him going in the right direction first.

Productive (Ross)

You will have read a couple of weeks ago how we sadly lost Rolo the Jack Russell to old age so I was delighted to fill the void with a new face and he has settled in very well. Named Cooper after the racing TV presenter Bob Cooper because of his bushy eyebrows, he has quickly come out of his shell and is very popular in the yard as you might expect. The fact he cost more than some of the horses in the yard probably means I should start breeding dogs if I want to earn a proper living!

Cooper

Last week I said how we'd sold Divine Queen at the Tattersalls Mares Sale but brought War Empress back after she didn't make her reserve price. Following the sale we had plenty of offers for War Empress and I was happy to find her a good home and a decent price for her owner Steve Clarke. She is now with top jumps trainer David Pipe in the West Country and will begin a hurdling career soon. She stays very well and has the size to jump a hurdle so hopefully she can do well in that sphere.

War Empress (Sam)