Snapping Turtle wins on the line at Newcastle last Thursday

33-braw-1!!

To be honest, he was 33-1 jumping the last, but Callum conjured up every last ounce of effort from our gelding to get up on the line in the 2½ mile handicap hurdle at Newcastle a few days ago.
Change of tactics for Snapping Turtle and he was dropped in by Callum, and this proved ideal as quite a fast pace was set by the leaders. Ridden along 3 out, our gelding never gave up and wore down the leading duo after the last to just get up.

On the same card, we adopted similar tactics with Bollin Julie, as Callum held her up in the rear of the field. She has not been finishing her races previously, and although never reaching the leaders, she did stay on through beaten horses to finish 6th.

The day previously at Hexham, Shadow Boxer seemed to sulk when unable to dominate matters in the 3m handicap chase, and was pulled up when beaten before the last. He is better than this, and we may just look for suitable races at Ayr and Newcastle in the next few weeks.

Snapping Turtle, with Matthew who led him up when he won at Newcastle

Next week.....

Leading up to Christmas, Northern fixtures are few and far between, so we're looking at Newcastle next Saturday. Maybe Ellistrin Belle, if she's recovered from a slight setback which stopped her having a run at Sedgefield a couple of weeks back. Failing that there might be a race on Boxing Day for her.

Other than that, we're very happy with the health of the string - long may it continue