Brave Trueshan inches ever closer to the £2m prize money barrier

How proud we all were with the brave effort of Trueshan, who was runner-up to one of the great stayers of the modern game in Kyrios in Saturday’s Prix du Cadran at Longchamp.

Trueshan was attempting to win this prestigious G1 for the third time, but Alan has always been a huge admirer of Kyrios, and he was chuffed to bits that second prize takes our evergreen eight-year-old within £18,000 of amassing a remarkable £2m career prize money for the Singula Partnership.

Alan now has 10 days to decide whether to declare Trueshan for the Long Distance Cup at Ascot on Champions Day (October 19), a race he has won twice previously, and, doubtless, he will be keeping a close eye on the weather charts as well as ensuring that our superstar has fully recovered from his exertions in Paris.

However, with Chepstow set to take the wraps off the new jumps season with an excellent programme next Saturday, Alan is stepping up a gear with his winter performers, and there will be plenty of interest surrounding the hurdling debut of Westerton at Stratford today.

Amazingly, Westerton has won only one of his 13 races on the Flat, but he was an ultra-consistent performer on the level, also boasting three seconds and two thirds.

Westerton has enjoyed a nice break since he finished third at Newcastle’s Northumberland Plate fixture in June, having undergone wind surgery the previous month, so, having been well schooled for this debut over jumps, we are looking forward to see how he takes to eight flights of hurdles.

Alan will also be tuned in today at Wolverhampton, where Advert Rules, already twice placed at Dunstall Park in the summer, tries to make it third time lucky when he steps up to a mile and three-quarters.

Huntingdon has always been one of Alan’s favourite courses, and Vivid Pink, whose best run in four attempts over hurdles came when second to the smart Mostly Sunny at the track in May, returns there tomorrow for another handicap hurdle.

Wednesday is a busy one for Barbury, with three runners at Ludlow and one at Southwell. Zodiac Star underwent  wind surgery in the summer and makes his return in the conditional jockeys handicap hurdle, with Oscar Palmer aboard, while One Glance, who was a promising all-weather performer at Kempton, makes her jumping debut at the Lincolnshire course, where I’d Go Maniac, who showed big improvement on Lingfield to win his second bumper at Market Rasen in July, is also in action.

Finally, One Cool Dreamer, who found a step up in class too much to handle at Newbury, drops back down in grade at Southwell’s all-weather meeting.