Monday 22 October

It came and went yesterday, the nerves were shredded, and in the end Kikos bowed out, but not quite how we expected him to!! With the race being quite a bit hotter than he is usually contesting, and the mizzling rain getting into the gorund a bit, we did not expect to be winning the race, but neither were we expecting him to finish without Sam! After all his runs, to unseat Sam at the third last was a sad way to bow out, but he is home in one piece and can now enjoy his retirement! Thanks for the memories old boy - you have been a star, and you will be very hard to replace! Of course Kikos joins another certain retiree this weekend, although I am sure Frankels retirement will be a lot different from our lads! Great to see Frankel bow out with a win! He has captured the public imagination, and has done wonders for our sport, lets hope we can keep up the momentum through the winter months!! Tannermans trip to the vets resulted in the perfect outcome, he was found a minor back problem, as we thought,which is easily fixed with a series of injections. He has been on the walker since Thursday, and will be ridden again today. His next run will be in 2-3 weeks, back over hurdles to get the freshness out of him. Benefit Cut will be scoped today, after which we will look for opportunities to get him on the track. Colebrooke is in great form and will be out again next month, either in Wetherby or Cheltenham. Smart Exit is ready to run, and I will be looking for suitable races for him today. San Telm is in great order, and could be out again on October 31st. The winner of his last race, Tony Star now heads for Chepstows Silver Trophy, so his last effort could just work out very well! Norse Wren is entered on Wednesday.