Weekend gallop report

A group of six horses completed some fine work on Saturday, all doing three sets of medium-paced gallops on the 'Up-the-Middle' stretch of woodchip. Interval training, I believe.
Keyboard Gangster & Big Bad Dream, Paper Promise & Dali Mail, and Side of the Road & Paper Roses were that particular sextet. Dali Mail was paired up with Paper Promise for this piece of work and we were delighted by the grey gelding as this was his first 'three timer' - and dual bumper winner Paper Promise is no slouch!!

Apart from our runner at Newcastle on Thursday, the flat sprinter Princess Apollo who has an easy stretch of her legs, the remainder of the string complete a couple of spins up the gallop. Of these, Stainsby Girl and Eternally Yours did some faster work second time up and also went well.

Big Bad Dream, Side of the Road and Keyboard Gangster with Paper Promise (hidden)

Race Planning

Dare we tempt fate? An insight into the inner thoughts of Dodlands Steading.

Stable aficionados will recall that Eternally Yours won a novice hurdle on debut in April but the BHA Handicapper didn't provide her with a handicap mark at that point. The Trainer had a phone conversation the other day with the handicapper who agreed that the bare form of that race was modest (subsequent runners have not shown much) but still allocated OR110 to our mare. Taking no chances.....
Oh well, at least we know where we stand with her but she is inexperienced for a handicap hurdler so we'd hope she'd progress during the course of the season.

Our trio of prospective novice hurdling debutants - Big Bad Dream, Paper Promise and Dali Mail - were all schooled at the end of last season before being dispatched off to grass. We'll pop them through our hurdling lane before going to the races this season, but we could do with a few days of prolonged rain at Dodlands, as we don't want to jar these young horses by schooling in firm ground (our schooling lanes are on turf).

The long range weather forecast is reasonably encouraging as regards rainfall, and there are a few northern meetings scheduled - Ayr, Carlisle, Kelso, Newcastle etc. - so maybe week after next?
Baby Ticker needs one more run in a Northern Lights Mares hurdle qualifier to meet the criteria for the finals day of this excellent series in early December at Carlisle - there's one such race at Ayr a week on Wednesday, so fingers crossed that all factors are in our favour in the lead up to that race.

Of our bumper horses, Stainsby Girl and The Boo Box would be the more forward of the bunch so it may not be too long before either one is entered up, although it may be more like early December for The Boo Box.

 
Baby Ticker pictured leading Stainsby Girl in a gallop last month