Saturday gallops

Although Borders' locals who attended the afternoon fixture at nearby Kelso enjoyed a glorious autumn afternoon, Saturday morning at Dodlands Steading was dull and overcast. So much so that our overpaid photographer sends his apologies in advance as the portfolio of photos taken were not up to the usual standard. (Didn't notice much difference myself - ed).

It was nice to see a few of our owners on the hill to welcome the second and third lots of the day. Dodlands' principal owner, and The Buyers Club CEO Mark Young took his place alongside Fozo and Al Duncan. Not quite enough to form a quorum of The Saturday Morning Gallop Watchers (aka TSMGW) but.
These local lads keep promising to take a saw to a couple of bushes which obscure a full view of the horses as they appear in the bottom half of the 'Up-the-Middle' gallop. The spread on the completion of this work is April 2020.........and as for the watch tower with hot tea and bacon rolls, well......

Excitement is certainly mounting and a few entries will be made for next weekend, and with our first runners of the season approaching, these stable updates will become less frivolous, I promise.

The weekend work schedule had been planned with those of the string nearing a seasonal debut on the racecourse in mind. Lot 1 comprised of three sets of horses working in pairs, where the second time up was tackled at a brisk pace.

• Baby Ticker and Paper Roses
• 'Margaret' and Danced Every Dance
• Big Bad Dream and Paper Promise

A few horses made up Lot 2 who were either being trained more steadily or are a few more weeks away from a run than the sextet in Lot 1.

• Banks O'Houxty (Garry)
• Stainsby Girl (Pinky)
• Keyboard Gangster (Kingy)
• Lady Villanelle (Leah)
• 'Seb' (Callum)
• 'Mila' (Rebecca)

A bit more is being asked of the unraced youngsters, and each are progressing pleasingly in their own way. Probably the recently named Lady Villanelle and the unnamed 'Margaret' are the closest to a debut appearance.

Stainsby Girl (a keen racer on the track) has been tried in a hood in the mornings but it's hard to say if this has made any difference as she is such a calm horse in the yard and settles nicely when tucked in at the rear in a morning gallop.

 
Keyboard Gangster (Kingy) leads 'Seb' (Callum), Lady Villanelle (Leah) then 'Mila' (Rebecca) and Stainsby Girl (Pinky)

Four horses in Lot 3, who also worked in pairs and went well.

• Bushmill Boy (Garry) and Dali Mail (Pinky)
• Honda Fifty (Callum) and Eternally Yours (Kingy)

Of all the horses who've rejoined the yard after a summer at grass, the above four have caught the eye in particular as looking much stronger this season. This won't make them run any faster but does bode well in staying terms when upped in trip.

R to L : Bushmill Boy (Garry), Dali Mail (Pinky), Honda Fifty (Callum), Eternally Yours (Kingy)

Weekend entries

Using one of the handy links provided by this website to the Racing Post list of stable entries, you can pour over at leisure the stable engagements at the weekend.
Ayr and Carlisle both hold fixtures and there is enough light rain forecast to make us comfortable with the advance going (good to soft). Across the two cards, Danced Every Dance (both days), Keyboard Gangster, Stainsby Girl , Big Bad Dream and Eternally Yours have all been entered.

As mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we'd expect our runners to need a race or two to be truly competitive and wouldn't consider any to be a betting proposition in the short term.
Look out for race previews later on this week.