Friday 30 October

Well he has finally shown a bit of what we thought he could do! Christmas Twenty has always promised to be a nice horse, but up until yesterday had let himself down slightly. He sweated up badly on the way to Stratford, but in fairness, still ran an adequate race to only be beaten 20 lengths. He then made the papers for the wrong reasons when losing the plot completely in Warwick and flipping over backwards on the way to the start. He was considered well enough to start, but only jumped 3 flights and Josh pulled him up. It was very decent of Josh to get back on him yesterday, after what he did to him on Warwick, and his decency was rewarded. CT travelled to the races well, on his own and arrived in good order. He has had much practice under all scenarios - the team have worked very hard on him. He behaved normally in the pre parade, and parade ring without the hood, and was well behaved when Josh was legged up. He got a lead to the start and jumped off in mid div. He travelled through the race in fourth, was understandably out paced after jumping 2 out, but stayed on really well to finish a close second, splitting 2 highly regarded horses that both cost a lot of money! His owners were delighted, and to be fair we couldn't have been happier if he had won. He travelled home well as well, and has come out of the race fine. He will be out again in about a month. Thanks very much to Stuart and is team who have worked minor miracles with this horse - especially Steph, who handles CT so well! Cloonacool is declared in Ascot tomorrow. Josh rides and he gets to carry 10st 9lbs. A fine racing weight, and I think he will be bang there jumping the last. With a bit of luck he will be able to stride up the long run in up the hill and get his head in front!! Fingers crossed! Our new boy arrived from Newmarket today, and has settled in well. I will get some pics of him tomorrow and put them up over the weekend with some details. Bold Conquest is entered in Chepstow on Wednesday. San Telm was pencilled in for this race, but has just opened up an old flesh wound and will not be out gain for a couple of weeks. Nothing serious, and we are all looking forward to getting him out again. BC is in rude health, and a strongly run handicap around a glloping track will be right up his alley!!