Leicester & Exeter

                 Activist runs today
It's the start of a new week and we seem to have had some rain at least! The jumps action comes from Exeter, Leicester and Plumpton, while the all-weather action continues from Southwell and Wolverhampton. Ireland have no racing today. 

It's three runners for the yard today and two meetings, Activist runs at Leicester in the 3:40pm Handicap Hurdle over 1mile 7 1/2f with Jack Tudor on board. He is a dual soft ground winner this year so will appreciate the soft in the going, this is his return run from a break but is in good form at home.

We are also closer to home today with two runners at Exeter, Ben Lilly runs in the 2:00pm Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle over 2miles 7f with Gearoid Harney riding. He ran 10 days ago at Fontwell where he showed a more encouraging run, but he's a little bit of a character and sometimes doesn't always quite try his hardest! Our last runner at Exeter is Seymourjohn who runs in the 4:00pm Bumper over 2miles 1/2f with Gearoid Harney taking the ride. This is a bit of a strange race with there being only three runners, so anything could happen in these types of races! He didn't have the luckiest of starts when pointing but soon showed his true ability when winning by 6 lengths last time, he makes his stable debut today for us and he's in good form at home.  

On Saturday we were at Cheltenham with Thanksforthehelp who ran well to finish fourth and not beaten too far, he jumped well throughout and didn't have the easiest of runs with plenty of bumping going on, but he kept galloping all the way to the line. We were also at Uttoxeter with Johannes, who was disappointing on his return, when weakening quickly inside the last few furlongs. He has returned all safe and well but we know he is better than that. 

I was pleased for young Freddie Gingell who won the Paddy Power Gold Cup on Il Ridoto for his boss Paul Nicholls, he's a great friend of ours so we were thrilled to see him ride to victory on a big weekend, it's crazy to think he is only 18 and he is a jockey that just keeps improving all the time and looks to have a bright future ahead.

There was plenty of nice performances at Cheltenham yesterday, this sport can be the best in the world but sometimes it can be the hardest within an instant after the sad news of the horses we lost throughout the day. It's never easy and thoughts go with all of those connected, I thought ITV Racing did a great job at keeping us all informed and was dealt with very professionally.    

What's the difference in an alligator and a crocodile?

You'll see one later and one in a while!

Happy Monday!