MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Fitz In continued his education with a respectable 5th in a maiden hurdle at Lingfield on Monday.  He’s not going to come into his own until tackling staying trips in handicaps so he remains a longer-term project, but this was very much a step in the right direction.

Sheila Nash is the first of our trio of runners on Boxing Day and will head up to Wetherby for the mares' novices hurdle over 2m3f.  We are aiming to build her confidence up after a disappointing start at Plumpton when last seen at the beginning of November and hopefully this should be a suitable race to get her back on track.

Raffles Gitane will head to Huntingdon on Boxing Day, where she should be suited to the flat, right-handed circuit.  She came out of her Sedgefield reappearance well and will be sharper for that first experience over fences.  She has been dropped a couple of pounds and hopefully she should be competitive under these conditions.

Poldark Cross has been declared for Sedgefield on Boxing Day where conditions should suit him.  Things went badly wrong for him at Bangor in October but we’ve given him some time off and he seems to be in a really good place right now.  This winning pointer should thrive over fences and we are looking forward to getting him up and running again.

We are looking to get Transfer Friendly qualified for the EBF final at Sandown, where he would most likely get his favoured soft ground.  He holds a couple of entries next week - Doncaster on Wednesday, Haydock on Thursday and Plumpton on Sunday, we’ll continue to assess which looks the best option for him before making a final call.

Faire Part Sivola ran with credit given conditions at Doncaster would have been a touch quicker than ideal and we should be able to find some nice soft ground for him at either Kelso (on Wednesday) or Uttoxeter (on Friday) next week.  He is now only 4lb higher than when bolting up at Ffos Las so wherever we goes he should still be competitive off his mark.

We are really excited to have Juniper ready to get her career back up and running after a difficult spell so far this season.  She’s back in full work now and holds entries in novice chases at Kelso, Taunton and Warwick next week.  We’ll see how the fields pan out.  She is a nice scopey mare who should thrive over the bigger obstacles, so we hope that she’s one with a big future.

Docpickedme was fairly disappointing when last seen at Southwell, hanging to his left in the first-time cheekpieces, but we’ve had him checked over since and there were no physical issues.  He seems absolutely fine at home so we’ve given him a couple of entries over the next week to 10 days - Taunton on Thursday, Uttoxeter on Friday and Ffos Las the following Wednesday.  He’s never been right-handed so we would learn plenty if we went to Taunton but we’ll assess the entries in the run up before deciding where to go.

Seddon was far from disgraced in what was a strong handicap for the grade at Hereford last time out and we would like to step him back up in trip over the holiday period.  He currently has the option to go for a Class 3 Handicap Hurdle at Taunton next Thursday.