Kelso

WE have two off to Kelso on Wednesday although I won’t be in attendance due to having an operation on my ankle at the tail end of last week. 

An old injury from my riding days has been causing issues for a while now, so I was in hospital getting some pins put in to stabilise it. So at the moment I’m cutting around the yard in a wheelchair and using the time to get a pile of office work done. I should be back on my feet in a few weeks and hopefully a bit more mobile once it’s all sorted! 

It’s been all go for the horses though, with HIGHLANDER HILL (4.30) now ready to make his long-awaited comeback after more than eighteen months off the track. The last time he ran was at Kelso back in January last year and that day he injured his tendon quite badly so needed a long layoff to get over it. 

He’s been back in work for a while now and is looking in great shape. Having been off for such a long time he’ll likely improve for the run but he’s fit enough to compete here. He’s a horse we all have loads of time for because he’s been with us from a three-year-old so we’ve watched him grow and develop over a long time now. We always expected him to be a slow burner and a chaser in the long-term. While we’ll be having a go and think he’s fit, the main thing for him right now is getting racing again. 

ARCTIC AMBITION (5.35) pulled up at Cartmel last month after suffering an irregular heartbeat. Thankfully it has sorted itself out naturally and all the checks we’ve done on him have come back perfect. He’s been given the go-ahead by the BHA and the Dick Vet to race again so hopefully it will just prove to be a one-off. 

We took him to Newcastle the other day for a gallop on their track and he came back in perfect condition, so it’s all systems go now. If he runs like he did a couple of times back I’d like to think he’ll have a decent chance, even though he’ll probably be a big price. 

We have Jonjo O’Neill Jnr riding for us for the first time, which is great because he’s a top class jockey and is travelling up just for this ride. I worked for his father back in the day, so it’s great to get him up on one for us. Hopefully the trip will be worth it.