At last we’re back racing tomorrow, our first runners for over a month. We were all set for some action last week, and were especially geared up for Kelso, but obviously the torrential weather spoiled those plans. Musselburgh won an extra fixture to replace the three lost in the north last week. We run both Chosen Flame (C. Nichol) and Le Gavroche (L Murtagh), in a 2m4 hurdle, which will be sharp enough for both horses, but at least the soft ground will make it slightly more of a test. Chosen Flame ran very well on New Years Day over the same trip/track, so hopefully he’ll go well again. Le Gavroche seems to be in excellent form and really coming back to himself. I hope this will blow the cobwebs away, and he’ll at long last start to look capable of winning. We thought he was a decent prospect at one stage, and I’m hoping he’s back to that sort of form. The following day we have Rath an Iuir and Jonniesofa entered at Doncaster, rerouting from their original targets at Kelso. Both races look very competitive and I’m gutted about missing better opportunities for them both at Kelso. But they’re ready to run, and at least they’ll both get soft enough ground. Jonnie is in a very competitive looking veterans’ chase. This will qualify him for the valuable final at Sandown, which will be a great target for him next season. Rath an Iuir is rated 121, which is a difficult rating to run in most novices under a penalty, so I’ve decided to try him in a handicap. We shall see!
Unfortunately Bigirononhiship will not be running in the Eider this weekend as originally planned. Like a lot of ours he had a couple of dodgy scopes, plus he had a poisoned foot which didn’t help matters. We worked him on Saturday and he didn’t go as well as he can, so it was an easy (albeit very sad) decision to not run him this weekend. Instead we’re now going to aim him for the Midlands National. It’s an even better and tougher race than the Eider, but if we can get him back to the form he was in when winning the Borders National, I don’t see why he shouldn’t run well.