Cannock Park

CANNOCK PARK (12.25) is our sole runner at Kelso on Borders National Day, going back over hurdles after starting out novice chasing earlier in the season.

We’ve decided to go back over hurdles rather than stick to fences because he’s got kissing spines and sometimes gets a stiff back. He’s had this since day one, it’s something we’ve always known about. 

When we schooled him over fences with a view to jumping fences he looked really good, but now I feel maybe jumping the bigger obstacles in a race setting isn’t the best for him. 

We took a step back, had a think about it and came to the conclusion we’d try hurdles again. We’ve schooled him over hurdles again this week and he looked very sharp.  

Ryan Mania takes over on top because Craig Nichol decided he wanted to stick with Cracking Rhapsody. Craig has a long history with him, riding him on big days like the Greatwood Hurdle at Cheltenham and in the Scottish Champion Hurdle, so with them entered against each other on Sunday he had to make a call.  

We’re delighted to have Ryan on board, he’s been coming in regularly to work the horses for us and rode Cannock the other day. He’s getting to know him well now so suggested we get rid of the hood and put some cheekpieces on him. 

With doing that we’re stopping telling him to slow down and will be encouraging him to go! 

Looking at the race, if we’ve got Cannock back to what he was last season then he should be very competitive.