Everyone knows last season was a bit of a rollercoaster for us but there’s no doubt that BIGIRONONHISHIP gave us a real highlight winning the Persimmon Homes Borders National. As you can see from the photo above, it was a good night when we got home and celebrating the good times is what racing's all about.
His main target is going back to Kelso next month for another crack at the big prize, so Ayr’s 2.50 gives him a good starting point this week. He won first time up at Wetherby last season and was only just fit enough that day but got the job done. Hopefully it’s the same this time around, he’s had plenty of work in him at home, looks a picture and has gone well fresh in the past.
Lorcan Murtagh, who rode him at Wetherby 12 months ago, will be on board and while Kelso is the main aim, we’re going there hopeful of being competitive. It’s a tough race with several good horses and he’s got a seven pound rise in the weights to contend with, but the trip and ground will right up his street so we’ll see how we go.
On Thursday another yard favourite JACK DEVINE (1.57) runs at Sedgefield in a novices’ limited handicap over 3m2f. There are only three runners declared for this and it looks a tight little race. He’s off bottom weight with a total of nine pounds splitting the three of them.
Jack ran well in two novice chases last season so has a bit of experience and has continued to school well at home. He had a spin over hurdles at Perth in September after running once in the summer at Market Rasen. A couple of the horses in behind at Perth have won since, so hopefully we’ve found the right race for him and he’s in the same kind of form he was a couple of months back.
After Ayr and Sedgefield, it’s off to Newcastle where we’re likely to have a few runners so will update on them later in the week. Busy times!