Borders National day at Kelso is always one of the highlights of our season, especially as Dad sponsors the race, so we’re looking forward to a great day’s racing there on Sunday.
Will Ramsay’s horse DIABLE DE SIVOLA (12.33) makes his debut for us in the handicap chase, second on the card, and it will be great to see him back on track. Will was due to ride him in a Grand Military race a few years ago but it was abandoned, and he eventually got the horse off the previous owners.
He used to be with Nick Williams and Gary Moore, with some decent past form down south, and looks to be on a very nice handicap mark. While he’s been doing everything well here in the month or so since he arrived, he probably will need the run.
Fair play to Will, who is having to claim seven off 11-7 and is a senior jockey being over 50! It’s brilliant he’s lost weight to take his first ride against professionals and has never had a winner at Kelso before, either. So it would be great if he runs well and if they win even better - it would be a great story.
He’ll be wanting to run him in hunter chases and Grand Military races, so hopefully there’s a decent run today to give everyone plenty to look forward to.
We run DO NOT DISTURB (1.03) in the Borders National. He loves Kelso, so that is a big plus, and I don’t think the ground will be too soft for him, either. I hope the trip will be okay for him too. Last time at Musselburgh wasn’t the best we’ve seen of him, but I think he’s far better round a bigger track like Kelso. It’s his track and if he sees the trip out then we’d like to think he’ll be in the mix.
It’s always a competitive race with a lot of very interesting runners, but we have won it once before and would love to do so again.
THE PLAYER QUEEN (2.10), seen here in her box at home, lines up in the mares’ novice over two-and-a-half miles. She’s a lovely mare, so we’ve waited a while for this race because we want to get her qualified for the EBF final. She won very well at Ayr and is very straightforward. She’s a tough mare who is really easy to train. We are hopeful she will take a step forward from her last run here.
DEFINITE WISDOM (2.43) was disappointing last time here over fences so we have decided to switch him back to hurdles to hopefully get his confidence back up. If you remember, he took a bad fall at Newcastle last season - so we think it will be good for him to be jumping hurdles just to get a feel for it again. He’s fine at home, working very well and has a nice mark, so he’s every right to be competitive. But the big thing is getting him back to himself when he goes to the races.
We were delighted with Cailin Dearg winning at Sedgefield on Thursday, above. It was her first win since joining us, and our 16th winner of the season from 56 runners. That equates to a strike-rate of 28%, which is absolutely fantastic and a great credit to the hard work of all the team here at Hazelrigg - the challenge is to keep that up until Perth in April!
Cailin Dearg settled much better than she has in the past and had really come on for her first run. She won in great style, so hopefully there’s plenty of fun to be had with her in the months ahead.
We still have shares available in her so get in touch if you fancy joining us.