Thursday 20 December

It is raining! It is always raining! And yesterday was no different! Benefit Cut ran in Newbury. He took his chance in a very hot Novice Hurdle, that in fairness he was very unlikely to win, but we did expect a better result than tenth! It would be a major puzzle if there were not mitigating circumstances, but thankfully his poor show can be explained to some extent. Firstly he was, once again, too free early - he needs to settle and let himself be a racehorse. Secondly he hated the very soft ground - once he dropped the bit he raced nicley, but could just not quicken up in the ground when Tom asked him for his run. Thirdly, he lost a front shoe, and spread a back shoe across his foot, which explains why he hung slighlty as well. All in all whatever could go wrong, did! And we got a thoroughly good soaking into the bargain! BC will have better days, but a slight posisitve is that he was not given a hard race, and was not too far off some decent horses that cost fortunes, and Tom said he would be a much better horse in the spring! Today San Telm will be entered in Kempton (Boxing Day). With all the rain about Haydock may not be on on Saturday, so this will be the next stop! We have had a rethink with Tannerman, and he will not now be out on Boxing Day, as so many of his owners had other plans for that day. He will now be aimed at races around New Years Eve, at either Doncaster (29th) or Uttoxeter and Warwick (31st). Both he and Smart Exit scholled very well over fences yesterday!