Colder today but dry, very dry up and down the country now and it’s beginning to look like a replay of 2025 which wasn’t great for farmers. Our 2025/26 ended up with a lovely day at the Fife Point to Point; glorious weather and a huge crowd enjoying themselves. Runners will always be an issue given the location and time of year but they had done a wonderful job watering and field sizes were up on last year resulting in six competitive races. We were delighted with Not the Chablis finishing 2nd on his swansong and very happy that the winner of the race was Kinneston alumni Everyday Champagne, sold to Jack Clark by Brian & Katie Castle. I have the utmost admiration for Louisa Cheape and her team in establishing such a successful new point to point; it has been an incredibly positive move and along with Scone now staging the International Horse Trials in August it just shows what can be achieved with positive thinking.
Not the Chablis yesterday – he is now looking for a second career and will make a fabulous horse for someone
Our season on the track ended in inauspicious fashion with disappointing runs at Perth on the Friday from Nae Botha at A’ and Gorvennec; a shame as the horses had generally run well up to that point at the three day Festival. The season as a whole produced 17 memorable winners but our winning strike rate was down though our place rate held up well enough. Overall I wasn’t satisfied with the results and we will be having a good look under the bonnet to see if we can identify any changes from previous better seasons, it may just be the natural cycle of handicap marks and the maturity of the horses.
Breakfast time this morning, a lot of the horses are now enjoying their summer break
A new season beckons and we will kick it off with two runners at Kelso tomorrow assuming the ground is genuinely good as advertised and no faster than that. First up is Lester Mail in the 2m 5f handicap hurdle at 15.25; he was staying on nicely towards the end of the race on handicap debut last time and looked like he would improve for the step up in trip assuming it doesn’t come too soon – Bruce rides and 11 run.
Lester Mail
Maillot Blanc runs in the second division 16.00; he has been in good form this spring finishing a close 3rd over course and distance on his penultimate start then an excellent 2nd at Perth last time. He should go very well again; my concerm would be that we are pushing our luck by running him for the 3rd time in 5 weeks and that there are also a couple of unexposed horses in the race who may improve for the switch to handicaps – Dom rides and 10 run.
Maillot Blanc