Dali Mail heads along the road to Kelso

Just the one runner for the stable tomorrow at our local course, Kelso. The bumper is split into two divisions and our French-bred 5 year old Dali Mail has his second career outing in the first of these at 3.30pm.

It's been nearly a year since his last run (his debut) when finishing 4th in a bumper run on heavy ground at Newcastle. There were wide margins between the finishers all the way down the field that day, and Dali Mail ran well for a long way before tiring into 4th place. Looking at how his opponents have fared since show that the 1st, 2nd, 5th and 6th horses have won subsequently in bumpers or hurdles. Our gelding did take a wee while to recover from the race, hence the gap between outings.

So what of the rest of the field - the usual exciting mixture of Irish Point winners, bumper winning and placed horses, plus unraced/lightly raced promising sorts.
Rose's Irish Point May '17 winner heads the market and Hitman Fred is a Getaway gelding who cost £90,000 shortly after winning on debut. He makes his Rules debut tomorrow. Her stable has introduced a few nice types via these races in the last 5 years (Some Reign anyone?) and is the deserved favourite ahead of Ewart's course and distance winning mare Strike a Pose (RPR 109). The 3rd horse with winning form at the head of the market is GNWTLR's Highland Hunter, also a bumper debutant/Irish Point winner who was acquired privately following that success (this usually means upwards of £100k......). Both the Irish Point winners achieved eye-catching ratings of 90 and above, with Hitman Fred just 2lb in front (for what it's worth).

Phew! Quite a trio to tackle head on, and you can't discount Skye Chief either who was runner up in Paper Promise's Musselburgh bumper 3 weeks ago.

Like ourselves, the other 3 runners (two from Kinneston Nick's yard and another from Langholm-based Ewart) are looking to progress for the experience tomorrow.
As an aside, Nick runs Elvis Mail in division 2 of the race who is a year younger half brother (by Great Pretender) to Dali Mail.

We'd have preferred less rain if we had the choice, but with the number of meetings called off and heavy ground the norm, Dali Mail has been itching to stretch his legs on the racecourse for a few weeks now so we'll take our chance.
Oh, and the formcard will show w¹ and t¹ after Dali Mail's name. Goodness knows what these letters mean........

Best of luck and enjoy the day to John & Nicola Mackin of The Zidane Partnership.

Tomorrow's bumper runner - Dali Mail with jockey Callum Whillans