Archives

March 30 With The Doyen Chief coping admirably with the switch back to a left-hand circuit when winning at Warwick, and both Paradias and Tritonic coming through their Good Friday prep-races at [...]

March 27 I am old enough to remember when the Rosebery Handicap and Queen’s Prize were the flagship races at Kempton’s big Easter week-end meeting, when the Sunbury course raced on [...]

March 20 Don’t Mind If I Do, runner-up to the smart Regent’s Stroll in the Goffs Hundred Grand bumper at Newbury’s final jumps meeting of last season, is back at the Berkshire [...]

March 20 We had an exciting bunch of bumper horses last season, giving us hope that one or two of them would make above-average novice hurdlers this winter, and one example its Ski Lodge, who [...]

March 15 Second-season novices have a good record in the Coral Gold Cup – still referred to locally at Newbury as the Hennessy – and Alan hopes that this week’s Cheltenham third [...]

March 13 Here’s hoping that Lady Luck deals us a better hand on day three of the Cheltenham Festival than it did on Tuesday, when the chief sufferer in what was a ludicrous ragged start to [...]

March 11 February was an even more miserable month than usual for Alan, with many of the Barbury team under a cloud when a bug spread through the yard. However, there was a noticeable spring back [...]

March 9 Longshots they may be, but Alan hopes that one or two of his select team for Cheltenham this week might surprise the bookies and finish in the money, and he certainly got a timely [...]

March 6 Every trainer would love to have a winner or two going into Cheltenham, and Alan has three chances of a pre-Festival boost for the stable at Sandown on Saturday. With a rain-free forecast [...]

March 4 There won’t be a dry eye at Barbury should Masaccio win one of those big handicap chases at Cheltenham next week, or for the matter if Dickens bags a somewhat smaller prize at [...]