Cold and grey this afternoon, dry and the cloud cover hopefully keeping the frost away.  Kelso’s Christmas fixture tomorrow, always a favourite and we have six lovely horses to run on ground that I expect to ride good to soft.  A little annoying for some of our best young prospects to be taking each other on in maiden hurdles however they are ready to run and with the ground now good at Newcastle and Haydock and the possibility of a cold snap round the corner I felt we should get them out between here and Ayr on Friday.

We start with Irish point to point winner Old Comrades making his stable and hurdling debut in the staying novice at 12.54, he takes on three winners in a good looking little race.  He was slow to come to hand in the autumn and with hindsight was probably struggling to acclimatise but he has appeared to be in good order for the last month or so and his point to point form has worked out well.  Fact finding mission more than anything but hopefully he will run a nice race, 8 run and Bruce rides.

Old Comrades

We are double handed in both divisions of the two mile maiden hurdle and the first of them is due off at 13.29.  We are represented by Lance les Des (Sean) and Lester Mail (Bruce).

Lance les Des

This is the stronger heat of the two; Lance les Des was runner up on return from injury over course and distance last month and should have come on for that run, Lester Mail won a bumper at the track in April and had excuses for his modest hurdling debut in October.  Hopefully he will leave that form behind and show us more tomorrow – 11 run.

Lester Mail

The second division is scheduled for 14.04 and we run point to point winner Cavalier du Luy (Bruce) and bumper winner Suspected (Patrick Wadge).

Cavalier du Luy

Cavalier ran a lovely race on hurdling debut and a repeat of that would make him hard to beat, Suspected had an issue on debut for the yard at Carlisle so last time here at Kelso we were focussed on rebuilding his confidence.  That worked quite nicely and I would like to think he can take another step in the right direction tomorrow, albeit that it will probably be over further before we see him at his best.

Suspected

Finally Eloi du Puy reverts to hurdles in the staying handicap at 15.15.  I don’t think he was really himself on his two chasing attempts this autumn and I certainly wouldn’t rule out trying that again in the future but I felt that a return to his favourite course and distance over hurdles would give us a much better benchmark as to where we are with him.  He also appears on much better terms with himself so I am hopeful of a bold show – Bruce rides and 7 run.

Eloi du Puy

On to Haydock on Tuesday where Ned Tanner runs in the 13.35, a race he won last year.  He is 7lb higher this time round but did win off this mark at Ayr in March so ostensibly has every chance, he has also had a minor wind operation since he ran at Aintree earlier this month.  My main caveat is the ground, will it be soft enough to see him at his best over this trip?  Definitely going to be a much sounder surface than this time last year but he should still run well – Sean rides and 8 run.

Ned Tanner