We’ll Do What We Can To Get The Don Back In Action

Looking back on the season I had a great haul of winners and it was great to cap it all off at Cheltenham by winning the Gold Cup.

I’m very lucky with the staff and horses that I have and the owners make it a great team. The team we have is what leads to the great season we’ve experienced so I’m very lucky to have them.

Don Cossack
It’s really unfortunate what happened to Don Cossack at the weekend. He gave himself a bit of a strain and he’s out for the rest of the season. We’ll be doing everything we can to have him back for the Gold Cup next year.

It’s unlucky but if it had happened before Cheltenham it would have been even worse. These injuries happen quite a lot in this game and this time it’s unfortunate that it’s happened to one of the big names.

In other news it looks like Jack Kennedy will be crowned conditional jockey’s champion and he’s a great lad. He works very hard and he’s doing a great job and his win is well deserved. He’s only 16 and it’s amazing the head he has on his shoulders.

We are always looking to improve and next season will be no different.

You never stop learning so you have to keep going forward in this game. We never take our foot off the pedal and we’ll have all our horses ready for the summer in about a fortnight to 3 weeks, ready to kick on again.

Punchestown
Before that, we are really looking forward to running Diamond King at Punchestown.

He ran brilliantly at Cheltenham and we think he’s deserving of the step up in class in the Grade One Stayers’ Hurdle. Obviously his task has been made slightly easier with Willie Mullins deciding against running Vroom Vroom Mag and Thistlecrack missing the race through injury, but even so, it’s going to be a very hard race with Alpha Des Obeaux my idea of the one who is going to test us the most. He was good at Cheltenham when finishing second behind Thistlecrack and he’s the one to beat for me.

The Game Changer will love the drying out ground and I don’t think he’ll be far away from Douvan in the Novice Chase on Thursday. Bless the Wings goes back over the banks in the La Touche on Thursday too and he jumps them well. He gets a few pounds of a swing from Josie’s Orders so hopefully he has a good chance.