Sizing John Is Ready To Rock & Roll!

Sizing John is in fantastic form.

Sizing John
He’s working well and we couldn’t be happier with him. We’ve done plenty of work with him and he’s as fit as we could have him without having a run.

He’s had two racecourse gallops and he’s ready to rock & roll.

There’s no doubt he’s a much better horse on better ground, but he’s got some decent form on soft ground as well. I suppose when you’re having your first run on ground as heavy as this, horses that have a run under their belt have a huge advantage over you. But it is what it is, so roll on Saturday!

BF Chase
Bristol De Mai has a lot of pluses in his box. He was good when he won the Charlie Hall and has proven form around Haydock as well on heavy ground.

Gordon seems to have brought Outlander back to his best form. As I said earlier, both of them will have a huge advantage over us as they’ve had a run under their belts.

They’re both fit and are very good horses.

They’ll give us a proper test but, whatever happens on Saturday, Sizing John is as ready as we can have him.

Triple Crown
We’re looking forward to getting Sizing John back on Saturday and…

this is the race that Alan wanted to get started off with a long time ago.

He said at Punchestown that he’d like to start off at Haydock so this has been the plan for a long time.

The million pounds is a bonus and we’re not even thinking about that. He’d be lucky enough to win all three and anything else is a bonus.

Hopefully Alan and Anne will be looking down at us and any little help we can get we’ll take it.

Weekend Reflections
Ruby’s injury just shows the highs and lows of a jump jockey’s career. It was very unfortunate for Ruby but hopefully he won’t be out for as long as was first feared. He’ll probably miss Christmas and be back in the New Year.

Forge Meadow was very good. We changed tactics with her on Saturday. She settled very well in front and galloped away well. She has plenty of stamina up her sleeve and she didn’t mind the soft ground and it was great to see her back to something like her best. She won a Grade 2 winner as a novice last year and…

if she’s back to her best she can be very competitive in mares’ hurdles for the rest of the year.

Woodland Opera beat a good horse in Tombstone after a move back to two miles. He was back to something like his best as well.

I was very impressed with Slate House in Cheltenham in October and he was very good again on very testing ground at Cheltenham again on Sunday.

I thought Finian’s Oscar was good. He needs to brush up a bit on his jumping but that will come with experience. I wouldn’t be overly concerned about it. He was very good over the last two when they were racing down. Obviously a stronger race and a stronger pace will suit him better.

I thought Fox Norton was very, very good on Sunday. He travelled very well on ground that wouldn’t be ideal for him. There were decent horses in behind him – I was seriously impressed with him at the weekend.

You couldn’t but be impressed by Faugheen. It looked like the machine was back in working order. His first run in two years he jumped out, did it the hard way. He made some very good horses look one-paced.

He was breath-taking.

Monalee rode a nice race in his first time over fences. He couldn’t have done any better. He’ll have to step up in grade and I don’t know whether he’ll run in the Drinmore but something like that would be his next target I’d imagine. ​