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Chepstow a great meeting and whets the appetite for the months ahead
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Fasol is in great shape and has a lovely chance in Friday's opener
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Today is a stepping stone for Welcome To Cartries and he'll improve
After a great summer we're excited for the season ahead
We're looking forward to the new National Hunt season, we've had a great summer. We always try and have 20 winners by early October or when Chepstow comes around, we've had a great strike rate. Those horses are pretty well finished now and we're now concentrating on the winter horses.
We'll probably end up running around 10 over the next three days at Chepstow.
This is the start of the jumps season but before we all get too excited we do need plenty of rain, the ground is still quick enough and we've only been able to school once on grass at home so far.
I've often found over the years that you get some horses ready for this meeting and they end up not winning again because they're ready for this meeting, and then they get a penalty or they go up the weights and they don't win again.
You just have to be selective on what you run, but I've always liked to run one in the Novice Chase on Sunday, Silviniaco Conti started his chasing career in that race, finishing second to Cue Card. What a race that was! The Persian War is a race where you need to have one ready to win if you can, unfortunately we didn't have one quite ready this year so I've left that alone.
But it's a great meeting across the three days, just to really whet everyone's appetite for what's coming over the next few months.
13:22 Chepstow - Fasol
He's in good shape, I wanted somewhere to start the season off with him. He's had some good form in some good handicaps, he was third on his last run in the £100k race at Sandown, and he won at Taunton. He had a few little issues with his breathing which we sorted out and he was well over the top by the end of the season.
Last summer he'd ran at Ascot and he didn't have the best summer because he didn't have a long break. He's had a lovely break this year and I think that's suited him, I saw him recently with his rugs off and it was the best I've ever seen him look.
So, I'm hoping for a really good run as a stepping stone to either going for another nice novice hurdle, possibly at Cheltenham in a fortnight, or for another nice handicap, possibly at Cheltenham again in a fortnight's time. I'd like to think he'll run very well today. It looks like he's got Fergal O'Brien's to beat (Frontier Prince), but I'm hopeful of a very tidy run.
16:17 Chepstow - Welcome To Cartries
He ended up quite highly rated last season, and then we went novice chasing. He ran very well on his first start at Sandown behind Handstands on quite soft ground, he ran very well until he got a little bit tired. That's the one thing with him, he's a big racehorse and will improve for the run, win lose or draw he's going to improve, he's not ready for his life today.
He then ran in the Kauto Star at Christmas, a Grade 1, which was probably a hot enough race for him. And then he ran very well over hurdles at Newbury in the spring as we didn't want to lose his novice chase status. I'd like to think this is a stepping stone for a nice season with him novice chasing.
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