Sadly, there’s no racing this weekend once again; the weather has got the better of us, but hopefully for the last time. So in place of a preview, I have an update on some of our horses to tide everyone over.
Cheltenham Trials Day
With Lingfield this weekend called off, Love Envoi has been rerouted to Cheltenham next weekend for the Grade 2 International Hurdle. The decision was made for us, really. Lingfield was abandoned, so we looked at all of the options and decided that this was the race run her in, partially as Constitution Hill is not due to take part!
We are keen to run her sooner rather than later, so we didn’t want to make her wait for Warwick in February. She won the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle at the Festival over course and distance in 2022, so this race should be made for her.
Joining her on Trials Day is Gidleigh Park, who is in great form and feeling very well in himself. He’s all set for the Grade 2 Novices’ Hurdle on the same card.
Next Saturday has the potential to be a very exciting day for the team. We’re hoping to see Love Envoi back to her best and we’re very excited to see Gidleigh Park stepping up in grade.
Stable Stars Update
Boothill took a fall over Christmas but, thankfully, he emerged unscathed and was back schooling last week. It was good to get him off the ground to gain some confidence, and he’ll do plenty of that before he next runs. The plan at the moment is to go either to Ireland for the two-mile Grade 1 Chase at the Dublin Racing Festival, or to wait until the following week for the Game Spirit at Newbury. Hopefully, he can get his season back on track after an unfortunate mishap the last day.
Metier is progressing. We haven’t seen him since he ran in the Group 1 Prix Royal-Oak at Longchamp, as he took a while to get over that run, and all the travel associated with it. We had hoped to take him to Lingfield this weekend, but he’s just not quite ready yet. He’s got an entry in the Betfair Hurdle, but we’re going to wait for him to be 100% before we bring him out.
Altobelli has run two good races this season at Ascot. I watched the replay of his last race at the weekend, and you could see by his action that, despite finishing third, the drying ground was not to his benefit. It’s quite frustrating and hard to believe that the ground had dried out like that just before Christmas with the weather we’ve had!
He’s also entered in the Betfair Hurdle, which is very much the plan. We hope that he gets the conditions to suit, and he should be competitive as he’s shown he’s got the ability for these valuable handicap hurdles. I hope he’ll get his day this season.
Have a lovely weekend,
Harry
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