Thursday 31 May

Tara Dancers' racecourse gallop last Saturday morning has really done the trick. It has sharpened her up no-end, and it looks likely that we will be heading to Southwell on June 12th with her for a mares bumper. With the exception of a little bit of fine tuning, she is ready to make her debut. She had her flu vaccination earlier this week so has not been asked to do too much - in fact Stuart took the opportunity to pop her over a few poles for the first time yesterday and she was a natural. So at the moment we can report that all dreams are intact!! Tannerman had his first school since his arrival and schooled fine - but there could be some improvement in his technique. Stuart now knows where he is with him - both in his schooling and his work he is a big green baby and you wouldn't believe that he has had 6 runs! This should mean that as he grows up there is ample improvement to come, and the team will now get to work on his jumping. No better place in the country to get them jumping properly!! At least he has settled nicley which will mean we should be able to stretch out his stamina and he should be able to run over a more suitable trip! No joy at the sales again. The Doncaster May sales have been lacking a bit of quality this year, with the state of the economy as it is, people are not parting with decent horses and restocking - they are just keeping hold of what they have which means that the horses on offer over the last couple of days have not been as good as past years. Aiden did ring regarding one horse by Presenting, that had finished third in a bumper, but I felt we could possibly do better - then it went and made more than we had to spend anyway!! So the search continues, and we will look at buying privately over the summer months.