Atleast the weather has been nice...

Well we must of been getting too used to having this recent deluge of winners as another week goes past and we have been unable to take the silverware home. It's fair enough when the it's not the trainers fault e.g. horse is unfit or it's the wrong sort of race, but when the trainer has got the horse in the form of it's life and then the jockey doesn't do the horse justice is very frustrating. As was demonstrated on Friday by the jockey that rode Blackmore at Lingfield. Although it was a shorter trip than usual there is no excuse for getting in a muddle taking the blind off and losing valuable ground at the start, the horse squirmed out of his position when laid up and was running on again and behind the winner a couple of strides after the line. When running in these races where the jockey has to have ridden no more than 10 winners it is a risk you take as they lack experience, the only positive to take out of it is hopefully the handicapper will drop him a few pounds.


As usual we had a few go for a long canter or gallop round Cambridge Road polytrack, life gets a little easier at this time of the year as for the first time since November we were able to cut across the Rowley Mile at about the mile marker instead of having to go all the way round up near the 1m 4f start.

Acer Diamonds did a good canter up there and as you can see from the sweat he is actually starting to think about things and get his racehorse brain on as it has taken a little while to get out of his bed head.

Sancho Panza has been steadily coming along for his come back at the start of the turf season and still maintains his enthusiastic attitude for the game.

We had three fillies work together, Canning Vale (left), Kampai (middle) and Entrance (right). They may only be moderate horses but it is nice seeing them all trying their hearts out in this bit of work, it is important to work horses with a similar ability otherwise the lesser horse can get disheartened and go a bit sour. But it will do the world of good for the confidence of these girls when they all finish in a line as they get a bit competitive when they are eye- balling each other.

Attain made a re- appearance since his run a few weeks ago, he just did a canter round and seems none the less for his exploits.

Verona Bay (in front) led Generous Genella up the Rubbing House polytrack yesterday. Both have been returning from injury and are now doing 2 canters a day. It will be interesting to see how the latter has matured when she starts doing fast work as we finally got the hang of her last year before she went wrong.

The two- year olds are coming along impressively and go up the canter either side of their lead horse now. Believe In Me (left) and Tiger's Home (right) matched strides with an un-named three year old filly by Halling out of In Luck.

Aswell as Blackmore on Friday, Emma's Gift came out in a competitive handicap. As the betting had predicted she was outclassed and may just be a little too high in the handicap now after a fruitful winter. Earlier in the week Automotive tried sprinting for the first time and although being backed into favouritism he still put in another bad performance, so it's back to the drawing board with him as he has once again left us scratching our heads about where to go next.

Next week runners wise we have on Wednesday Canning Vale and Khajaaly in at Wolverhampton, neither of which have been in particularly good form of late but they will go there in good health they will just need a bit of luck. Also The Ducking Stool will make a re- appearance after a break at Lingfield on Friday if all is well.