Grinding on

It's a harsh time of the year and now with the frosts setting in and even a bit of snow this week, working with horses is not the ideal job to have! But now with flat racing all year round there's always horses to keep on top of. Two horses I hope to see helping us through the dark months are Spirit of Sharjah and Automotive (both below). Spirit (green cap) has been a real good money spinner for us over the years, we have got a race in line for him in a couple of weeks and I just hope he still retains all that ability. 'Mo' on the other hand is still a maiden, he also has alot of ability but is quite quirky, they will definitely be two to keep an eye out for this winter.

Handheld (right) has really come into himself since joining the yard a couple of months ago, I think a change of scenery has done him good and will be running in the next couple of weeks. Working along side him is Lea Valley, we have kept her going because I think she could pick up a race or two on the all-weather, she goes very well at home but gets quite buzzy and nervous at the races.

Only two runners next week, both at Lingfield on Wednesday. Sail Home (infront) and Exopuntia have given great performances of late, the former is a course and distance winner but Exo has only run there once before and finished 2nd so would both hopefully be in with a shout.

One of the heroines of the turf season this year has been The Ducking Stool, with two wins and 4 seconds aswell as several other placed efforts she has given us some great fun. She has now returned after a short break with maybe a look at having a run over both codes, she is a huge filly with so much scope it would be great to see her over a few hurdles, if she does well over jumps it would be a real success story as she was only a cheap buy by her owner.

We had no luck with the runners this week, Wiggo and Generous Genella both ran at Wolverhampton on Tuesday and both ran disappointingly, although the surface there is not great at the minute. Then Kampai ran at Lingfield on Friday, she arguably ran better than her finishing position suggests as she was ridden further back than ideal and was running on before meeting trouble late on. She still has a race in her and would be worth a look next time.