Up and Coming.......

Maybe it's a small case of tilting at windmills, but as of now our intention is to head to Aintree on Thursday and Friday with a couple of our winning bumper horses - Paper Promise and Dali Mail respectively.
Both Grade 2 races, with Paper Promise targeting the mare's race on the first day of the Aintree Festival, Dali Mail aiming for the gelding's version.

This'll be the final bumper for each of the duo, and with plenty of ease in the ground, we thought we'd see how they run.

With that in mind, the pair were worked together on Saturday morning (pictured below), and went well.
Make no illusions, both are very competitive races with just about the best gathering of this type of horse outside Cheltenham. I mean, we could put up personal bests and still finish out of the first 10........

Paper Promise (Murray, left) and Dali Mail (Pinky)

On to Newcastle on Saturday, and fingers crossed that the meeting survives the deluge of water falling in the area as we intend to run Tomahawk Wood in the concluding handicap hurdle, and give a hurdling debut to Eternally Yours in the opener (2m 4f novice hurdle).

First up then, Eternally Yours. We took her out to the Shirley-Beavan yard at Bonchester last week to their excellent outdoor arena, for some schooling over poles progressing to small hurdles. You can see how the final session went here.
She's still quite inexperienced in racing terms and if she takes her chance on Saturday, we'd be looking for a nice jumping performance and to complete without mishap.
Callum Bewley popped into the yard on Saturday morning to ride out a couple of lots before riding at Kelso in the afternoon, and he's pictured below with Eternally Yours.

Eternally Yours (Callum Bewley)

And last but not least, Tomahawk Wood was looking in sparking form on Saturday as he completed a piece of faster work with our young Shirocco filly. He's never been the easiest to train, but our fingers are crossed that all goes well with him through to Saturday. The 9 yr old is a course and distance winner (over 2m4½f), goes well on heavy and is very well at home.
The gelding would be our best chance (by far!) of a winner this week.

Summer companions Tomahawk Wood (Murray, right) with our young Shirocco filly (Callum)

Kelso weekend reflections....a reprise

Thanks to Tony Lees who kindly sent us in some photos he took following Keyboard Gangster's thrilling success at Kelso last Saturday. On returning to Dodlands, the gelding was straight into his box and devouring his food that evening and the next day too.
Anyway, Tony gives us another chance to share the delight of winning!

A beaming Sarah leads in a victorious Keyboard Gangster and Callum. The Trainer looks on

The Buyers Club receive their prizes