Belle heads to Musselburgh tomorrow

There's no doubt that the free travelling Ellistrin Belle runs best when fresh. It's probably been a bit longer than we'd planned though since her last run when winning at Sedgefield in mid November, but she re-appears over 2 miles at Musselburgh tomorrow.
The advance going is given as soft but there are many who believe that Musselburghgoodtofirm is all one word, so we would anticipate the surface as being no softer that good to soft. Pity, as we'd be suited by soft and not so sure too many of her opponents would be.
Ellistrin Belle has been raised 12lb for her win in a 4 runner handicap hurdle last time, which is a bit hard to bear as each of her 3 opponents have been pulled up in their next run (although the runner up did suffer a serious injury). Still, the mare is well, and we'll run our race and tomorrow will tell just how accurate the handicapper's assessment has been....

Dodlandswise : This is a really trappy race, one of those which could be run 5 times with 5 different winners. Most of the runners would be well suited by good ground, and they may well be rewarded following a couple of days of dry (-ish) weather on the East Coast of Scotland. The booking of Wilson for Rose's Honourable Gent - a progressive hurdler when last seen over a year ago - catches the eye, but this is wide-open......  

Bollin Fiona leads Ellistrin Belle in a morning gallop

The two Bollins out of luck yesterday

7th and 8th places yesterday at Newcastle for Bollin Julie and Bollin Fiona respectively. And while we were quite pleased with Fiona's first run for 7 months - staying on again up the straight after being outpaced down the back straight.
I guess we thought Julie would have finished a bit closer to the leaders, but it was not to be.