A wet morning, brighter now. A better day at Kelso yesterday, no winners but a second, third, two fourths and a fifth. Encouraging to see Maillot Blanc back to form, an excellent chasing debut from Jirko, great run back after a long lay off for Better be Definite, Scarlet Jet struggled under his penalty and will be better for the run, Artic Mann put up another great effort. Elsewhere on the card 2m 4f on good to soft was too sharp a test for Gaillimh a Stor, Ned Tanner went to sleep at the back and made a bad mistake just as he was coming into the race, eased thereafter, and Boolamore Classic wasn’t competitive.
Dubai Days
On to Carlisle tomorrow where we have two runners on the chase course which may have eased from this morning’s good to soft, soft in places. We start with Dubai Days in the Veterans Handicap Chase at 1.15; he has been a grand campaigner for the team and we’ve done a few things this autumn which will hopefully keep him at his best for a while longer; as a course and distance winner who will love the ground he has an obvious chance, main caveat would be that to date he has always run his best races after Christmas. No reason why and hopefully he can put that hoodoo to rest tomorrow – 5 run and Bruce rides.
Hombre De Guerra
Hombre de Guerra runs in then 2.15, he is wrong at the weights by some margin with most of the rest of the field in this valuable Graduation Chase but we started here with him last season and we feel it would be good to get a run into him before he tackles open handicap company – 5 run and Sean rides.
“The Losers Room” at Kelso