Festival Fever

The build-up seems to have gone on forever but The Cheltenham Festival is finally here. Although we deal with flat horses 99% of the time, I still love to watch the jumps racing and will be glued to the TV when time allows. You can't beat the atmosphere at Prestbury Park during the coming four days and every racegoer is there as they love racing and not just for the drinking or some pop band playing after racing. I do hate it when a horse gets injured jumping though so I can only wish all involved next week the best of luck and hope all horses and riders come home safe and sound.

Sadly I won't be able to watch the tapes fly up for the opening race at the Festival as we have a busy day with two runners at two different meetings.
Limerick Lord has been a bit disappointing since winning late last year but he drops into claiming company this time at Southwell and I hope he can find a bit of form again at a track he has won at before.

Limerick Lord (Ross)

Veeraya is another who is hard to predict but he too could go well at Wolverhampton the same day. He has dropped down to a good handicap mark now and the seven furlong trip looks well within his compass.

Veeraya at the beach

Most of the horses who have had a winter break had their first proper stretch of the legs this week and I'm happy to report that they all came out of their first gallops in great health.
Moment To Dream went very nicely, so much so that I gave her a preliminary entry at Lingfield on Friday. I doubt she will run but there weren't many entries and it could be a good starting point if looking like a weak contest.

Duke Of Diamonds (Caitlin) & Moment To Dream (Sam)

Sabre Rock continues to steamroll through his comeback and he stepped it up another notch this week when striding out alongside Handheld over seven furlongs. Due to his history of leg trouble, we are in no rush to get Sabre back but he still seems to have all his old ability, if not more. Mark, who rides him everyday, does a great job to keep him safe and hopefully his hard work can be rewarded when Sabre returns to the track.
Handheld is another with lots of ability and I hope to have him ready for the Lincoln meeting at Doncaster next month. He loves soft ground so early season would be his time to strike, you would think.

Sabre Rock (Mark) & Handheld (Liam)

The Ducking Stool looks as good as ever too and she could make her seasonal reappearance in a couple of weeks. It will be on the all-weather, a surface she has shown little form on, but she usually needs a couple of runs to get back race-sharp so it will be a good starting point.

Dark Diamond (Ross) & The Ducking Stool (Nick)

Silver Alliance (Chloe)

Big Bang (Chloe) & Architech (Liam)

Go On Gal and Little Orchid were both a little weak last year as two-year olds but seem to have strengthened up over the winter and have been doing their work very lively. Orchid needs one more maiden run to get handicapped but Go On Gal is good to go now and I'll try to find an ideal race for her as she should be winning off her current handicap mark.

Go On Gal (Adam) & Little Orchid (Caitlin)

THREE TO FOLLOW POINTS UPDATE

Nick Feilden	3
Mason Brown	3
Clare Peacock	3
Pauline Kennedy	2
Jonathan Kinge	2
Dave Morris	2
Linda Wright	2
Dave Barnett	2
Dudley Lever	2

PLUS 37 others on 1 point

PLUS 43 others on 0 points