Gentleman De Mai schooling
OFF to Ayr today with two runners, hoping the ground hasn’t been as affected by the frost as much as we have on the other side of the country - it was -4 at Hazelrigg this morning!
FIRTH OF FORTH (3.55) is the first of our pair, he’s having his second run of the season after making his comeback at Kelso in late December. He’d fractured his pelvis at Catterick back in March so was given plenty of time to get over that and we didn’t have him fully wound up for his return.
He’s improved for it and hopefully this is a good chance to get back to last season’s form, where he ran with plenty of promise in novice hurdles. Hopefully Ayr will have enough juice in the ground, although that's hard to find anywhere at the moment - which is pretty crazy in mid-February.
We had him in at Newcastle but looking at the forecast that would have been too quick for him so he’ll take his chance here and hopefully he’ll be competitive. We need him to bounce back but from everything we’ve seen at home he’s in good order.
GENTLEMAN DE MAI (4.30) tackles fences for the first time and as an ex-point to pointer this is what has always been on the cards. Looking at him he’s every inch a chaser and because we have been a bit underwhelmed with his runs over hurdles so far this season, considering he’s got a low handicap mark compared to what we believe he is, we’ve decided to get going in chases.
He’s schooled well and the galloping track at Ayr should be right up his street. We have put some cheekpieces on to get him to travel better and the trip should be ideal. He's quite fancied in the betting so hopefully he runs as people expect him to!