Coneygree (Max) is well into his rehab and is now walking 30 minutes twice a day. Most people would choose to use a horse walker but Max is just too foolish, fresh and precious to be left to a machine! So instead I am riding him twice a day and while this might seem like boring stuff, he is the most incredibly agile and fast walker that I’ve ever had the pleasure to sit on and so I spend the time dreaming of more Gold Cups successes to come!
Carruthers and Lily have had two cracks at point to pointing and came away with gold stars. They have not yet made the winner’s enclosure but the ground has been very sticky and not at all to his liking. On top of that, on their first attempt at Larkhill, he was not quite over the lurgy that had affected most of our horses over the first half of winter. However he ran much better at Barbury the other weekend, threatening on the bits of better ground, before getting slightly stuck in the sticky conditions and then running on to finish a promising fifth out of twenty.
He is now heading for the Pegasus Club race at Siddington which should not have too many runners, so ground permitting he should give Lily her first experience of the winner’s enclosure.
Flintham came out of his win at Warwick in fine fettle but has been harshly treated by the handicapper as the jockeys on the beaten horses behind him had all dropped their hands, which made a big difference to the winning margin. With his rating up to 147 it has been impossible to find another race for him before Cheltenham and so he will go straight there. It’s fair to say we are praying for a deluge the night before the Pertemps on the Thursday!
Thankfully, all of the horses seem to be coming right now so we are very much looking forward to some more racing action.