Thursday 22 December

Yesterday new boy Montegonian was entered at Wetherby as planned. The race at Wetherby is for juveniles that have only run in a maximum of one hurdle race, which on the face of it looked perfect for our big grey, but as the morning went on, and I tracked the entries, it became clear that there was going to be plenty of entries in the race. At about 11 o'clock there were 27 (final figure 33) in at Wetherby and 14 (final figure 17) in a juvenile at Kempton Park on the same day. The Kempton race is a much better race, but there will be half the runners, the ground will be better, and there will be a stronger gallop. This allied with the fact that we are likely to get a better pilot at Kempton, and there is likely to be less carnage, it looks as though it could well be the better option. No definite decision has been made just yet, but it looks more likely that we will swerve Wetherby as we want him to have as nice an introduction as we can. He is very unlikely to be in the shake up in Kempton, but at least he should have a nice experience. Sorry to Edna and the gang in Yorkshire we were looking forward to seeing you all, but we must do the right thing for Montey! Smart Exit will be entered today for a novices hurdle at Leicester next Wednesday. He has missed a couple of days because of a foot abcess, but has cantered for the last couple of days and should be OK to run. Omaruru will be checked over by Brett The Vet tomorrow, and as long as all is well he may well resume cantering very shortly! He still looks fantastic, and I can't wait to see him striding up the gallops again! Kikos is enjoying his holiday - he has been giving the Kehoes' walker a bit of stick - so he is in good form! San Telm is still on course for Fakenham on New Years Day, which will hopefully give Sam a welcome return to racing. He signed off the year at Ludlow yesterday with a winner (he is now banned until 1 Jan). Silver Wren ran well for a long way yesterday, and seems fine this morning - the opposition was just a bit hot yesterday. The same may apply to Justazippy today at Hereford, but on the face of it she should finish in the first 4 if she handles the softer conditions - Tom O'Brien rides.