Back from a long week at Cheltenham and a lot to catch up on.
Mon Michel didn’t run his race. He needs to come off a strong pace and there was no pace on early. He needs half decent ground and he didn’t get it. The horse is fine and he’ll be winning again soon. I don’t think Kauto Star ran up to his best, but Denman takes the credit for making it so. Denman set such a strong pace that Kauto made mistakes – he probably isn’t a world class jumper and Denman got him out of his comfort zone. One day he may beat Denman, but he lost fair and square. Master Minded was incredibly good, but perhaps it would have been different on different ground – this might be irrelevant in future years as, like Katchit, he is only a five year old. He may be very short next year.
I didn’t back a winner all week, although I only bet on seven races. I didn’t get a winner last year either – that was the first time in my life that I’d gone through Cheltenham without finding a winner. I’ve had a bad jumps season – I’m not close enough to it and I don’t have enough time to do the homework. I made a lot of money on the flat last year and lost it on the jumps – there’s a lesson there somewhere. Roll on the flat.
Ours ran OK on Sunday but we’ll probably sell him as we’re looking for top notch types and he doesn’t look the right grade at the moment. Max One Two Three’s full brother won today, but it was a fairly desperate race. Big Paddy may run on Sunday, and he could go well. Lilac Moon is well and close to a run – she may be out in early April. Shawhill runs in Germany on April 6 and then goes to JC Rouget. I’ve kept Bouguereau in the Derby for now but it’s a long shot and is probably money burnt.
I’ve missed Swindon’s last two matches – Jeremy tells me they played well enough but didn’t get the required results. We won’t go up this year, which is disappointing but maybe it’s better that way. I met a few STFC fans at Cheltenham – we need to make progress but it doesn’t have to happen overnight.