26th January 2020

It's full steam ahead in the yard at present with all the team back in work and most of them getting fit again in time for the new turf season in the spring. We have a few horses who came into work a bit ahead of the others and some of them will be hitting the track again in the coming weeks.
Spanish Mane is one of those and she will hopefully have a run at Chelmsford on Thursday. She had a very up and down year in 2019 - after suffering a heavy fall at Yarmouth in early summer, she bounced back to win at the same track in the autumn. Her confidence was affected by that fall though and she hasn't quite recovered it fully yet so I'll put some eye shields on for her race this time which can help nervous horses feel a bit more secure when in the racing pack. She tried them on at home this weekend and galloped very well but I think she will come on for the run as she usually needs one or two races to get fully fit.
Accompanying Spanish Mane to Chelmsford will also be Ride and Prejudice as she has to pass a stalls test before she can run again. In her last race she was reluctant to load and got the jockey off so we have had horse behaviour expert Gary Witheford work with her at home and he has done an excellent job to get her to load into the stalls with little fuss. Fingers crossed she can get through this test as I think she will give the N.E.T. Racing Club some success this year.

Engrave (Ross), Sea Shack (Sarah) & Spanish Mane (Sam)

Also on Thursday I entered Oud Metha Bridge at Southwell as the number of entries were low and he is ready for a run. His first try at the track last time went very well with a third place and he had a good blow afterwards so will have improved for it too. If he can build on the last run then I don't see why he shouldn't be far away at the finish.

The third runner of the week should be Engrave at Lingfield on Saturday. She was meant to have her first run for us at Chelmsford a couple of weeks ago but the meeting was abandoned due to high winds just as she was in the parade ring. The extra time with us won't have hurt and I'm looking forward to running her. It's her third career run so she will get a rating afterwards but she has shown enough in her previous runs to suggest that she can win a novice race.

Winter Snowdrop (Gemma) & Ride and Prejudice (Eoin)