Cecil The Gent Will Be Sadly Missed

For those of you who didn’t know Cecil Ross, he was a highly respected horse trainer from Mullingar in Co. Westmeath.

RIP Cecil Ross.
He was an absolute gentleman, a character and a real horse man.

I was talking to Cecil on Sunday evening after Fairyhouse, he rang me to congratulate me on the winners.

He’d been sick for a while and I’m extremely sad at his passing.

He loved having a winner locally at Kilbeggan, was a great man for the sport in general and particularly in Westmeath.

Fairyhouse Delight
No More Heroes was very good, he jumped and he travelled. He looks like he’s more in his own comfort zone when jumping a fence and when he steps up to 3 miles he’ll be a bit better too. He looked in great shape and I’m very excited about him.

He really showed a lot of pace in the race. He looks like a different horse over fences than he did over hurdles. He was spending a lot of time in the air over hurdles and maybe sometimes he gets a bit slow but he certainly didn’t look slow the other day. He travelled the whole way, jumped, did everything right.

I tipped up Tombstone in the Talking Turf podcast last week and was really impressed with him.

He’s not slow and we’re probably going back to 2 miles at Christmas at Leopardstown but he looks like a really exciting horse and again, it’s exciting to see how he’ll run next time out. If he can stay in one piece he can be anything.

Missy Tata, who started as odds on favourite in the Grade 3 juvenile on Sunday, was beaten by Rashaan who looked very, very good. He has now been subject to a good few big money offers since the race and is now 14/1 favourite with BoyleSports for the Triumph Hurdle.

He jumped and travelled and stayed and galloped to the line but unfortunately our filly came home very lame and she’s in the vets at the moment but hopefully it’s nothing too serious. Hopefully they have her back sooner rather than later.

Nina Carberry – Tingle Creek.
Nina Carberry goes over to ride Somersby in the Tingle Creek. It’s Un De Sceaux’s race to lose but great for Nina to get a ride on such a big day.

She’s proven time and time again that she is a class act but I don’t think she has ever rode in the race before. Sprinter Sacre doesn’t run so it’s a really exciting race for her to ride in now.