Wynn House returns at Newbury after a nine-month absence

January 21

January is always a quiet month for Alan, with the focus being getting all the flu vaccinations done, while precious few of the Barbury team relish the bottomless ground, which we have been encountering all over the country.

However, though he sent out only seven runners last week, Crystal Moon (Hereford) and Ernest Gray (Southwell) got us off that all too frustrating ‘cold list’, and provided Storm Isha is not too hard on us, we’ll hopefully have another winner or two before we move into February,

Alan had Ludlow pencilled in last week for the return of Wynn House, but with that meeting being abandoned he will now switch her to the mares handicap hurdle at Newbury on Tuesday – again weather permitting.

He said:”It will be good to get Wynn House back on the course and it will be her first race since she fell in a Grade 2 chase at Cheltenham’s April fixture in April. She cracked her hock that day and we weren’t sure that she’d be able to race again, but, thankfully, she is back and raring to go.”

Alan will also be looking forward to seeing how newcomer Lahinch Strand fares in the bumper at Newbury. Denis Barry’s home-bred Kayf Tara gelding is the second foal of L’Unique, who was a classy mare for Denis and Alan, her four wins over timber including a Grade 1 hurdle at the Aintree Grand National meeting in 2013.

Beforehand, however, we have three runners on Tuesday, including Fidux in the long-distance handicap chase at Plumpton. Alan said:”My conditional jockey Oscar Palmer was due to ride Fidux at the last Newbury meeting (abandoned), so he is back on board here, having got on very well with the veteran when they finished second at Doncaster last month. The downside of that decent effort was the handicapper’s reaction. He put him up a couple of pounds even though the old horse hasn’t won for three and a half years, which won’t make things any easier.”

In action at Warwick tomorrow is Royal Deeside, who improved on his hurdling debut when finishing second at Newbury before Christmas. He runs in the juvenile hurdle and if he settles better he ought to again be competitive.”