Slanelough doing a bit of schooling
OFF to Doncaster today where SLANELOUGH (1.05) will be our sole representative, lining up in their two-and-a-half mile handicap chase. I’m a bit apprehensive about the race having fourteen runners as he’s shown in the past he’s most effective in a smaller field, but since this is the only place with good ground it was inevitable that plenty would turn up. We need good ground for him so our hands are a bit tied in terms of where we can go at the moment.
This is very much a ‘let’s see how it goes’ mission for him. He’s soon to be 12 but the fire still seems to be there. I liked his comeback run over two miles at Wetherby where he led the field but didn’t have that finishing kick the proper two-milers have at the finish. We then took him to Ayr but I think that came too quickly and he folded when horses came around him.
Slaney ready to go
Ideally today we’ll get away in front, use his jumping and Craig will be able to fill him up and have enough petrol left for coming up that long home straight.
Tomorrow we will run AAZZA (1250) at Doncaster in a race we have had planned for her for a while. The ground will be ideal and we know she likes the track, having won there by a wide margin in January, so hopefully we will be competitive.
The only worry we have is that Here Comes The Man finished tired at Newcastle on Thursday and it does make me think the disruptions we’ve had because of the weather have perhaps left some of ours a touch short.
We have had a lot of challenges to deal with, including a flooded gallop, so normal routines have been interrupted. Hopefully we have been able to get enough work into them - and with runners at Doncaster, Carlisle, Musselburgh and Catterick coming up we’ll soon find out!