National Hunt

The year has flown in and we are now deep in to the National Hunt season. A lot of our flat horses are having breaks, some just a few weeks to freshen up and others that worked hard through the summer are having a couple of months R and R.

Slainte Mhath is enjoying some holidays after a busy summer

This weeks runners were at a rain soaked Newcastle where both Castlegrange and My Macho Man ran with credit for fourth place. Castlegrange suffered from a huge hike in the handicap when we brought him over from Ireland at the start of the year and he has now dropped to a mark where he can be competitive. He jumped and travelled with fluency and maybe just did not quite see out the 3 miles on testing ground under a big weight. Really looking forwards to getting him back out which will likely be at Hexham on the 7th of December. He loved the ground and would want it to keep raining, I thought Bruce gave him a lovely confident ride. My Macho Man was very pleasing on his debut run for the yard. He jumped super under Emma and galloped through line and will hopefully be winning something similar soon. He came to the yard with the plan that he will be dual purpose for his owner Eddie, so do not be surprised to see him entered up on the tapeta this winter.

Castlegrange and My Macho Man returning to the winners enclosure

Hopefully our jumpers will continue in good heart when we head to Musselburgh on Monday where we have Evita Du Mesnil and That’s Your Lottie lining up. Both mares have track form although Lottie is up in trip to 3 miles and stamina may come in to play after all the rain we have had up here. Our other entries this week are Ginger Pointe and Halcyon Dreams at Kelso on Thursday but we would may be like to see the ground dry out a bit for that.

On Sunday Cooldine Bog will hold an entry at Hexham for the first Northern Point to Point meeting of the season, and he will give jack his first ever ride in public. It will be an exciting day but one with no pressure. A clear round and home safe would be a great result for Jacks first spin.

Cooldine Bog and Jack

When the flat returns from it’s short break our first entry will be Rockley Point at Wolverhampton next Tuesday. Looking at the programme book there are plenty races for our team in the tapeta at Newcastle in January.