Wednesday 15 May

Land League is fine after his run in Huntingdon last week. Ciaran felt he wasn't quite right in his wind, and was just struggling a tiny bit with his breathing during the race, and Stuart thought the same as he listened to his breathing as they walked back to the winners enclosure. As ever, we will do everything possible to get the very best performance out of all of the horses, so by the time LL had left Huntingdon he was booked in for a wind op with Ben Brain. He travelled down to the Cotswolds yesterday, and had the procedure, and was back on the lorry on the way home by Lunchtime. The noises he was making in Huntingdon were suggesting that he needed a bit of a tidy up to his soft palate, which is what he had done, and Ben reported that it was a problem for him. In an ideal world you would overland scope him, where an endoscope is inserted into a horses nose, and fed down to the area of his larynx. The horse is then asked to canter around a deep sand loop, and whilst he does this the vet can see on a hand held monitor, exactly what is happening inside the horse. This identifies the exact problem, and it can be dealt with by a number of different wind ops. In LL's case this isn't possible because he just will not allow the endoscope into him - so the vet has to go 'old school', and go on what noises he makes as he gallops. Hopefully having his soft palate tidied up will let LL finish his races. This procedure will not keep him off games for long, and he should be back cantering by the weekend. There are a couple of shares available in this gorgeous horse, so get in touch if you would like to have a share in a competitive, consistent runner over the summer months. 07909 518902. We will be trying to find further horses to syndicate over the course of the next few weeks - with 4 big sales taking place in the UK and Ireland, so keep logging on to stay up to speed with the share options we have available. There will be shares to suit everyone at all levels, so stay tuned. Big news yesterday, with the announcement that Gigginstown House Stud were to begin a winding down process, by not restocking with stores this year. This will leave a big hole in the Irish National Hunt scene, but Willie Mullins has proved how life can go on without Mr O'Leary's patronage.