I’d like to start this week’s blog with the news that we have decided to retire dear old Brain Power. He had lots of little niggling problems over the years and unfortunately struck into himself at Kempton last time afterwhich we thought the kindest thing was to let him go back home to Ireland where he will enjoy a very long and happy retirement, of which he very much deserves.

He didn’t find jumping fences that easy but those ‘intermediate’ fences in America were right up his street which is why he absolutely loved it when we took him over to Far Hills for the American Grand National which he won, albeit in extremely fortunate circumstances, but if nothing else he will at least go down as my one and only Grand National winner.

There are plenty of highlights including when he won a valuable Handicap Hurdle at Ascot but his success in the 2018 Unibet International Hurdle will have to go down as the most shrewd piece of  race planning because I must admit all of that was down to his owner Michael Buckley who suggested the race and he proved absolutely spot on. In the end he won eight of his 22 races and amassed just short of £500,000 in prize money which is a great achievement.

Brain Power storms the Unibet International Hurdle for Nico de Boinville and Nicky Henderson ⚡️

Spare a thought for the likely retirement of The New One who pulled up before the last pic.twitter.com/MCIOqPRMOW

— CheltenhamRacecourse (@CheltenhamRaces) December 15, 2018

He was a great character and a very popular member of the crew at Seven Barrows and I’ve no doubt he’ll be kept very busy at his new home and give them lots more fun.

DONCASTER

1:30 G2 Lightning Chase

Shishkin (Nico de Boinville)

He’s looked very good in both starts over fences and has done everything we’ve asked so far. We were considering going to Warwick, or even Newbury for the Game Spirit, but Altior will be going there, so this seemed the most suitable race and his work has been very good along with his schooling. One can never be over confident, and Eldorado Allen is no slouch, but Shishkin is a very exciting chaser and I don’t think the 5lbs penalty will make any difference and I’m looking forward to getting him out again.

2:05 G2 Mares’ Hurdle

Floressa (Nico de Boinville)

She was very unlucky in this race last year, I don’t think she would have won, but she still encountered a lot of trouble so you could say we have some unfinished business. I thought she ran a nice race in the Christmas Hurdle last time and she put in a very nice piece of work on Tuesday so comes here in good form. The ground would be a very slight concern but she has plenty of stamina which will help under these conditions and she seems to be in a rich vein of form.

Marie’s Rock (James Bowen)

Everything that could go wrong did go wrong at Newbury last time where she was much too keen and then found plenty of traffic problems so I’m happy to draw a line through it because she is much better than that and we’re putting a hood and tongue tie on to try and get her to relax. We’ve always thought a great deal of her but she picked up an injury early in her career which kept her off for a while which was frustrating but her work is very good and she will be more adaptable than some with regards to the ground because she has plenty of knee action.

2:40 G2 River Don Novices’ Hurdle

Emir Sacree (Nico de Boinville)

I must admit he surprised me when he won at Ascot on his debut for us because we weren’t planning on making the running or anything like that, but he stayed well and galloped strongly to the line under a nice ride from Joe Anderson so the step up to three miles should suit and he won’t have an issue with the ground. He was going to go novice chasing and the race at Ascot was supposed to be a way of getting us there but he has slightly thrown us to be honest which is why we’ve ended up here. The Pertemps might now be an option but he needs to have at least three runs over hurdles to get qualified because I can’t run him in a Handicap Hurdle so this was about the only three mile I could find which ended up a G2 Novice! On ratings there really isn’t much between them all so he warrants his place in the line up and I’m intrigued to see what we’ve got.

Obviously we all have no idea what’s going to happen with regards to the weather and where we will be racing this week but if they reschedule some of the Cheltenham races I’m still very keen to run Santini in the Cotswold Chase and it is extremely unlikely that he will be going to Haydock. That was a very speculative entry and it will be a major surprise if he turns up there. Other runners this week may include My Whirlwind who is very much ready for a run and I’d like to get at least one more race into Goodbye Stranger & Heross Du Seuil.

Time Flies By has a couple of entries and will no doubt take up one of them along with Ballingers Corner who is also ready to go.