NEW YEAR’S EVE

NEWBURY

12:40

Jet Powered (Nico De Boinville)

The aim has always been to be patient and go steady with him because he’s quite an ‘enthusiastic’ horse at home which is why we aren’t putting him straight in at the deep end and I don’t want to overface him at this stage of his career. That said, he is a very nice horse, as we all saw last time, and I hope he will develop into a high class animal. This is another part of the learning process and we’ll know more after this.

1:50

Bothwell Bridge (Nico De Boinville)

Things haven’t gone to well for him over fences and he wasn’t enjoying it at all so we’re switching back to hurdles in the hope that it might relight the spark. He is a horse with talent but in all honesty it’s hard to fancy him in his current form.

Glynn (James Bowen)

Every time I put his name next to a race in the entry book he manages to find some way of getting out of it by going lame, coughing, or finding some other obscure ailment to not go and he still has 24 hours to find something wrong with him! But hopefully he’ll get there in one piece and run a nice race. He hasn’t been on the track for quite some time so is obviously entitled to improve a lot for the run but if he can come back safe and sound that will be the first mission accomplished.

3:00 G1 Challow Hurdle

Attacca (Nico De Boinville) – NON RUNNER

I must admit back in September I didn’t think he’d end up running in the G1 Challow Hurdle but as it is he’s quickly becoming a very likeable person and we sort of feel he deserves to take his chance in a race like this. He made the running over two miles at Cheltenham, but he’s crying out for this trip so we shouldn’t need to employ the same tactics here and it will be interesting to see what horse we have on our hands after this. He’s in very good form and I’m looking forward to it.

3:35

Bold Endeavour (Nico De Boinville)

I was very impressed with him on his debut for us at Leicester where he won easily and while he’s 9lbs higher here I do think he is a very smart horse. He wouldn’t want the ground too soft, so I will certainly be keeping an eye on the weather, but I like him a lot.

Surrey Quest (James Bowen)

He was a very smart hurdler and made a pleasing Chase debut at Uttoxeter last time where he will have learnt plenty. I’ve no doubt he’ll be winning races over fences but I do feel we have a stronger chance with Bold Endeavour.

UTTOXETER

1:43

Blue Stello (Daryl Jacob)

He hasn’t run for over a year but won his bumper nicely at Warwick and is a horse with plenty of ability. However, he will definitely improve for the run and if I was a betting man I wouldn’t want to be rushing in at short odds first time out in what looks quite a competitive race.

2:18

Call The Dance (Sean O’Briain)

We have three lovely youngsters owned by James and Jean Potter Ltd and each of them are definitely up to winning their Bumpers. Choccabloc, who she does a lot of work with, ran a very eye catching third (on debut) at Wincanton last week, so we have a reasonable idea as to where we stand. She’s not the biggest filly, but is by Kayf Tara, who handled soft ground, out of Hora; the dam of Thomas Campbell who won his bumper and a half sister to Dancing In Brazil who also won his bumper, so she has plenty of ticks in the right boxes. I’m not saying she will win but I’d be extremely hopeful she’ll go close.