Monday was a very sad day, losing Trooper Turnbull to a broken leg at Carlisle after making a novicey mistake four fences out. Trooper was a wonderful horse, he was very special with loads of potential and we were expecting a lot of very good days ahead from him. Everyone at the yard loved him, he was a joy to train and it always leaves a big gap when something like this happens. It’s terrible for his owners the Hunters and McKie’s, who adored him and are so upset about it. He summered at the McKies' and spent time there last year when he injured a ligament, so they'd spent a lot of time looking after him and were really close to him. We will all miss him.
DEFINITE WISDOM (3.30) is on a bit of a recovery mission after disappointing last time at Doncaster but since then we have identified stomach ulcers and had them treated, so it will be interesting today to see how much of a difference that makes. Hopefully he’ll get a bit of his old zest back, he likes Musselburgh and has been successful round there in the past. The ground will be fine but we come up against the Laura Morgan horse who beat Shanbally Rose convincingly last week, so we have a bit on our plate with that one! Lucinda Russell's has also been running well, so it’s not an easy race for a five-runner event. The big thing for us, I suppose, is we see the fire is still there and get something to build on.
RAE DES CHAMPS (4.05) goes for the shorter race than the two-and-a-half mares race even though we think in time she will need to go further. She’s going for the mares final at Kelso which is over two miles so we just though we’d stick to that for the moment before stepping up in trip. She has been given a fair opening mark, she’s got potential so I’m certain we’ll have a lot of fun with her. Sticking to two miles might be a bit pie in the sky, to be honest, but it’s good prize money at Kelso so we just want to stick down this route for the moment.