Edwulf Is Doing Very Well, It’s Great To Have Him Back

Edwulf is doing very well.

Cheltenham Thoughts
Hopefully he’ll travel home tomorrow or Wednesday. He seemed to suffer a seizure or a small heart attack, and I’m not sure what the chances of it reoccurring are yet. We’ll obviously go through all that before a decision is made whether to return to training or not.

It’s just great to have him back and that he’s going to be okay.

On a positive note, Derek had him jumping pretty well in a good rhythm. He jumped the second last, he got a bit close to it and obviously pulled up at the back of the last. It’s one of these unfortunate things. The vets on the track were outstanding.

West Coast Time had a very good run in the Champion Bumper. I’d say the ground was a little bit good for him on the day. He travelled into the race very well. He’s an immature horse and is one to look forward to next season. Punchestown is an option for him, but there’s a case to be made in leaving him for the year. That’ll be decided over the next few weeks.

Zip Zag in the Fred Winter ran a great race. He’s a consistent horse and doesn’t owe anyone anything. He’s a horse that there’s plenty of fun to be had with on the flat and over hurdles. I’m not sure if the tongue-tie was responsible for much improvement but it didn’t go him any harm anyway. That’s the long and short of it.

Landofhopeandglory and Ivanovich Gorbatov both ran well on Friday, they both finished fifth. They were both very competitive races and neither of them disgraced themselves.

It was Ivanovich Gorbatov’s first race in a handicap and hopefully there’s a nice pot in him somewhere down the line.

Weekend Review
Shady Operator, who won the bumper in Limerick, is a lovely big horse and an exciting horse for the future. We thought he’d run very well but he surprised us to win. He’s not a bumper horse really. He’s one I’m really looking forward to. He’s a stayer in the making, as an individual and his pedigree – he’s from the family of 1983 Grand National winner Corbiere.

He jumps brilliantly and is an exciting horse.

He doesn’t have to race again before the season’s out but he’s qualified for the Sales Bumper. There’s a chance he’ll go there but we’ll see how he is over the next week or ten days. It is an option.

Weekend Ahead
We’ve two horses in the Irish Lincolnshire at Naas on Sunday – Jaqen H’Ghar & Reckless Gold – but I’m not sure if we’ll have a runner yet. I’m really looking forward to the turf season, looking forward to the two-year-olds and a couple of nice three-year olds – Intricately obviously and Motherland. We have a nice bunch of horses and I’m really looking forward to the season kicking off.

It looks like it’s going to be decent enough ground on Sunday but there’s a lot of time between now and then so we’ll see closer to the time what the ground’s going to be like.