Sizing John Looks A Million Dollars After His Break

I had a nice winner yesterday with Born To Size in the beginners chase.

Liam Burke has done a fantastic job with him, he’s very highly strung but Liam always maintained he’d make a better chaser than hurdler. He was foot perfect and he could be one for a nice handicap later in the season.

Future Rides
I ride Lostintranslation for Colin Tizzard at Chepstow tomorrow.

I was over schooling at Colin’s a couple of weeks ago and he’s a horse I liked a lot.

He had one run in an Irish point-to-point last autumn and while he’ll probably be better over further, this looks a good starting point for him.

I’m really looking forward to seeing Finian’s Oscar make his chasing debut later on the card. The new arrangement means Bryan Cooper will ride him tomorrow and he’s a serious talent who will be a contender for top honours in the novice chase division this season. I’m Alan’s (Potts) retained rider in Ireland and he’s got a large string – the majority are trained by Jessica Harrington, with the remainder spread between Jim Dreaper, Mouse Morris and Liam Burke. It’s going to be an exciting season and fingers crossed all the horses stay sound.

A Million Dollars
Sizing John remains on target for the Betfair Chase at Haydock (25th November) – he looks a million dollars after his summer break. He did his first strong piece of work this week – we are six weeks from Haydock so his work load will be increasing week by week. It’s crucial at this time of year that he doesn’t miss work, but he’s a sound horse and so far so good with him!

Jessica usually brings a strong team to the Punchestown October meeting that takes place next Wednesday and Thursday. Woodland Opera is likely to run in the Grade 3 Buck House Novice Chase. He’s a novice until late November having not won his beginners chase until early April last season.

That means the Drinmore is a possibility along with the race for second season novices at Down Royal’s James Nicholson meeting.

Paul Nicholls usually has one lined up for that race but Woodland Opera is a possible for Down Royal next month.

One To Watch
I rode the Boylesports Irish Grand National winner Our Duke in work on Wednesday morning. The first big target for him is the JNWine.com Champion Chase at Down Royal (4th November).

I flagged up a horse called Madison To Monroe a few weeks ago. He’s a horse Alan purchased from Colin Bowe’s having won an Irish point-to-point and he really is a smasher! He’s doing everything very nicely and will probably start off in a bumper in mid-November.

It’s an exciting time of the year for any National Hunt jockey but I’m very lucky that we have a strong team for this season. We are bringing horses from bumpers to hurdling, hurdling to chasing and while the horses are learning about their discipline, we are learning about them all the time.