Wednesday 27 April

The store horse that Stuart and I saw last week passed a veterinary inspection with flying colours yesterday, and a deal has been done to bring him to Fences Farm in a week or so. He is a fantastic looking son of Exit To Nowhere (sire of Noland et al) and is out of a half sister to the very talented hurdler Mighty Mogul who won the Gerry Fielden and Persian War hurdles among others. She has bred 4 horses that have run, 2 of which are winners - Line Ball who was a very decent horse in Ireland a few years ago, and Sin Bin, who was an expensive purchase late last year for Trevor Hemmings and won a bumper in great style (on debut) for Paul Nicholls a couple of weeks ago. All in all this beautiful chap has a lot going for him and being 4, and already broken in and ridden away, we can crack on with him straight away after a short summer break.He has been purchased to replace the ill fated Robo who we sadly lost at Cheltenham in December, and he if turns out half as good as him we will have plenty of fun with him! The other new face in the horse ranks, Colebrooke, has really taken to his new career in some style! On only his second visit to the jumps field he skipped up 3 flights of hurdles today without a care in the world, first time following a lead horse, and then on his own. He seems a very straight forward and clever horse who obviously enjoys his jumping. He will now be let off for a few weeks, to recover from a recent busy schedule, and be prepared for a late summer/autumn hurdling campaign.