Saturday was an extraordinary day at Ayr. I was hoping to maybe get a winner on the afternoon, and we ended up with four, coming out on the right side of two very close photo finishes.
We picked up some nice place prize-money too and it’s gone a long way towards winning the championship in Britain, but it’s not done and dusted yet.
It was a stroke of genius from David Casey to enter Sharjah in a three-mile handicap chase, his class just shone through even though he carried top weight on ground that you wouldn’t normally expect him to excel on.
But my instructions to David were to enter everything qualified in whatever races and see what happens. It isn’t what we’d usually do but shows what can be done.
Macdermott feels like he’s been around forever but he’s only six and to be winning a race like the Coral Scottish Grand National at his age, augurs well for the future. Because of his rating I couldn’t run him a lot of the races I wanted to, and he got valuable practice going around in races that probably just didn’t suit him but suited his rating.
It worked out in the end and for a six-year-old to jump and gallop like that over four miles is a big plus for the future. We can look all the different Nationals in the different countries around Europe.
El Fabiolo is an intended runner in the bet365 Celebration Chase at Sandown on Saturday, but we haven’t decided about the rest, including Gaelic Warrior, yet. We’ll have a handful of runners at the meeting though.
Perth, Thursday
15:35 Milo Lises
Won well for Brian Hayes in Punchestown and he renews his acquaintance with him. I think he will improve a lot for his last run which puts him in here with a great chance.
16:10 Feu Du Bresil
His form has been very in-and-out this winter and he’s one I’d watch rather than be punting. His best form would put him right in the mix but he hasn’t always shown it of late.
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