Monday 28 November

Monday morning, and the vet did his rounds. As planned, Cloonacool was scoped, and he scoped A1 - the vet also took a blood sample off of him, which will be analysed later today. This analysis will teel him the state of health of Cloonacool, but from what he saw on the scope, and what the folks riding him are feeling - Stuart thinks he is back in tip top shape. There is a lack of right handed races going forward, but there is a hurdle in Sandown on Saturday, so although we will not have the blood test results until later today, and Cloonacool will have to do a piece of work tomorrow to prove his fitness, we have decided to enter him. As I say, he will have to prove his fitness in a piece of work tomorrow, but he has been doing plenty of strong work recently, and Stuart thinks he will be OK, if he is, then Saturday becomes an option - if he wasn't entered he couldn't run. Also scoped this morning was Apasionado - who was also perfect - he has an entry in the Graded, Winter Novices Hurdle in Sandown on Friday. We will discuss things over the next couple of days when we have seen the long range forecast, to see if Ascot on the 16th is still an option. The vet also had a look at Sneaking Budge, and has told Stuart to just keep him to light exercise at the moment. Unfortunately he can't put a time on how long he will be off of faster work, but is happy that the injury remains minor - just a pulled muscle. As we humans know - pulled muscles can vary in recovery time - the same is the case with SB!