Tuesday 22 December

Savingforvegas headed to Fakenham on Sunday to make her hurdling debut. She had won her bumper in fine style, but the decision was to crack on with her hurdling career. Fakenham was always likely to be far from ideal for her, but their mares hurdles usually cut up a bit - so it was a huge shock to see the quality of mares declared. As it happens 5 of the 10 were non runners, but 4 of the five were still decent! SFV is a winning Irish Point to Pointer, so 2 miles around a tight track was never ideal, and so it proved - hanging slightly around the tight left handed bends, she didn't cope well. Paddy kicked on 6 furlongs out, to make it a test, but in the end she was just outsped, by a decent mare who had won her bumper around there. Vegas stayed on well to be second. Congratulations to Nuala who led her up, and snaffled the best turned out award - SFV looked great! We will look for a more conventional (possibly right handed) track next time - as she has come out of her race fine. She barely blew afterwards, and will be out again early next month all being well. This weeks amendments in the handicap charts are - San Telm -2 to 118, Cloonacool -1 to 135. Smart Exit has remained the same despite being well beaten - Stuart will tackle the handicapper about that after the holiday!!