Gavin Sheehan came in to school a couple of horses on Christmas Eve ready for their boxing day runs. Later in the afternoon I did the remainder of my Christmas shopping, leaving it a little late as per usual!
On Christmas Day we got the six horses out that were due to run over the festive period. We had hot chocolate with rum and mince pies in the tack room afterwards and everyone felt pretty Christmassy!
We had 18 people for lunch at the house, everyone joined in and we had a delicious lunch and a very good day.
On Boxing day I drove David Obree and Sam Waley-Cohen up to Wetherby, we had a good run and made it within three hours. Cedre Bleu ran in the Rowland Merrick, he travelled and jumped very well and looked like winning turning for home but eventually finished fourth. He ran a solid race and I would love to get him qualified for the Grand National.
Libeccio ran in the Juvenile at Fontwell over an extended two miles in heavy ground. Gavin had walked the course and picked the best ground to finish third only beaten 1/2l and a neck, he ran a good race and stayed on strongly. I think he will be better on better ground although he does go okay in the mud too.
We worked a few horses on Saturday. I was impressed by the young Brian Boru horse and Superb Story worked very well. Gowanauthat worked well, he is ready to run now and we still have a 1/2 share available in him. He was an impressive Irish Point winner in October in the fastest time of the day. He has a great attitude at home and seems like he will dig deep.
I was making plans to got to Leicester on Sunday but it was abandoned so only Cody Wyoming ran at Catterick. He ran a very solid race finishing second giving 19lbs to the winner. If he hadn't have made a mistake at the last ditch he may well have won.
On Monday we had a very hard frost but luckily Newbury had their covers down and we were able to run Seventh Sky. It was a competitive novice handicap chase, Noel Fehily rode him to jump beautifully and pinged the last in front only to be beaten by 1/2l. We got him out this morning and you wouldn't know he had a race.
We have had a run of seconds recently, they are all going well at home and on the racecourse but it would be nice to go one better! Champagne N Caviar will have to get his jumping on target to improve tomorrow at Warwick. Other possible runners include Superb Story at Mussleburgh on New Years Day, I would prefer not to head up there as there are a few winners in the race but it is the course with the best ground which I think he needs and I have to get a run into him soon. It would be nice to get the new year off to a winning one with him!
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