This afternoon we run Brian Rogan’s prospective jumping horse, Marshall Aid, over sixteen furlongs on Lingfield’s polytrack; this is a step up in trip over his last five runs and this represents one of the rationales for running him; it is a £7k Class Four race so it is inevitably competitive with quality in depth but, with dead eight runners, he is a large each way price at around 33/1; it will be interesting to see if has, with a bit of time, strengthened to improve on his one previous attempt at two miles when Liam felt he wasn't quite as effective over this sort of trip on the flat yet.

It is a beautiful, cold, clear morning in Lambourn (a wonderful place to be on such mornings!! on natural turf that has lain undisturbed since Saxon times) and this highlights the wonderful facilities we have close by Rowdown. All the gallops are open despite the hard frost we have had over the last couple of nights; the Jockey Club guys will run the harrowing gallop master over all of them at 5am on the mornings such as today to ensure that they remain useable and safe in everything but the very severest weather. We are grateful to have the use of these spiffing and quality facilities, which are as good as anything you would be able to find anywhere, and you can see quite a bit more of them and the way they are maintained in the video here