TRAINING racehorses is never straightforward and on Monday we were all very disappointed when Sizing John met with a setback, which means that he will miss the remainder of this season.
We had a long chat with connections on Monday evening and it really is a hard pill to swallow, as he looked great and all was good with him. It has been a very frustrating season with the ground the way it has been, but we are where we are with him and hopefully we’ll get him back.
The beauty of this game is that there is always something around the corner and Kate travelled to England during the week for the weights launch for the Aintree National and we’ll have our first runners in that great race this year, and the aim is to run both Sandymount Duke and Magic Of Light.
They will both get into the race, and it’s brilliant for their owners and everyone in the yard after the week we’ve had – it’s just funny the way things go.
We always target the big spring festivals at Cheltenham, Aintree, Fairyhouse and Punchestown and for the last few years, we have been light runners wise at Aintree, so it’s great to have two horses good enough to run in the National. We’ll keep everyone posted on their progress over the coming weeks.
Onto this weekend, I run five and here are my thoughts on their chances:
Gowran Park – Saturday
1.50
Forge Meadow (Paddy Kennedy)
She won this race (the Red Mills Hurdle) last year. The ground was very heavy and testing that day and she loved it and she galloped them into the ground. She’d prefer softer ground, but it is what it is. This will be her last season racing and she is a valuable mare to breed from and the more black type she picks up, the better. With Robert in England, it’s great to be able to give Paddy Kennedy the opportunity to ride a good horse in a big race like this. He is a real grafter and a very good rider and he deserves to get opportunities like this.
3.05
Rovetta (Paddy Kennedy)
Paddy also rides this mare and you can forget her last run at Gowran last month, when the plan had been to have her handy, and things just didn’t go her way. She is better than that and despite the fact that there is a big field, the plan is to have her handy – she does stay very well. The ground should be okay for her, but like Forge Meadow, she would prefer it softer. She ran very well at Limerick at Christmas time and the form of her run behind Honeysuckle at Thurles has been well advertised by the runner up, who has since won a good race at Leopardstown. There are 20 runners and she’ll need a bit of luck in running, but I think she is capable of a big run.
Navan – Sunday
1.50
Thegoaheadman (Robert Power)
He is a grand horse, but he is very much a work in progress. He has ability and he works like a nice horse, but he is just taking a while to learn his trade. Maiden hurdles remain very competitive over here and you need a high 120’s/130 plus horse to win one. He needs more experience and I hope that he’ll be competitive when he finds his own level in handicaps.
3.25
Moonshine Bay (Robert Power)
You can forget his last run at Naas. The ground was very holding and he was never comfortable on it and Barry (Geraghty) sensibly pulled him up. Before that, he ran well in the three-mile Grade 1 novice chase at Christmas time and he loved the good ground that day – it was good too, when he won his beginners at Thurles. On ratings, he has a bit to do – Champagne Classic won a Grade 1 over hurdles and he ran well on his first start back after an absence at Naas a few weeks ago. He is bound to have improved for that and he, along with Any Second Now and Chris’s Dream set a pretty high standard. But our horse is in good form and he schooled very well over fences on Friday morning so we’ll let him take his chance and see how he gets on.
Heliers Bay (Finny Maguire)
I took her out of the bumper at Gowran on Saturday and have gone this route with her instead. She is big, powerful mare that we like. Her work at home has been good and she is ready to start off. Like all of mine, she will come on a lot for her first run. We have booked Finny, and he is riding with a lot of confidence and I think she’ll run well. She runs in the colours of my daughter Kate and Kate of course previously owned Magic Of Light, who won her bumper at Navan back in 2016 and she has since developed into a high-class staying chaser and will represent us in the Aintree National. Sunday is nice starting point for Heliers Bay and she is a real chaser in the making. It looks an open race and there are a lot of debutants in the line-up, but I think our mare will represent us well.
