LORD BALLIM won the 3.10pm at Perth today. He has won three races on the bounce at Carlisle, and after unseating his jockey two days ago at Perth, Nigel Hawke decided to run & Lord Ballim duly obliged. The step up in trip seems no problem & we think he will get further.

INNOVATE won very impressively in the very capable hands of Peter Carberry in the 15h30 at Angers today, only her third run over hurdles. A very good training perfomance by Louisa Carberry.

She is a homebred filly by Full of gold ex Ryde who herself won three times including the prix Sapin at Auteuil and placed seven times from 3 to 4 years old.

Innovate has a 4 year old full brother and a 2 year old sister & yearling brother by walk in the park.

LORD BALLIM makes it 3 out of 3 at Carlisle today, but this time over the bigger fences. He is starting to look quite versatile as he has now won over different trips & ground and today was his first win in a chase.

LORD BALLIM hacked up again at Carlisle today with top weight. Well done to all connections.

As mentioned in a previous blog, we are very well served by our usual vet, but when our horses require surgery or for pre sale vetting we use the Clinique de Conques, one of the top equine practices which is based near Libourne about 45 minutes from us.

Today Dr Fabien Relave came over to look at a horse work with an onboard endoscope attached so that he could see what was happening in the horse’s throat  when it was doing some strenuous work.

3 year old gelding by Al Namix ex Arvicaya has just been broken in & ridden for a week, he will now go out in the field for a small break. He is a very tall horse but incredibly agile.

Burma, who is a 1/2 sister to Cut the Mustard, has just had her 1st foal. A lovely big strong colt  by Saddler Maker.

Verni (see blog of 5th february 2017) ran a great race to be second in the Martin Pipe today at Cheltenham for Paul & Clare Rooney.

Still on the upgrade, although he is eight years old, the strong galop suited him well & he jumped better as a result of it. He pulled quite hard early on & has plenty of pace so a drop back to two miles could also suit him.

Many congratulations to trainer James Ewart & owners John & Jill Dodd for the victory of CALIX DELAFAYETTE, first time out, in the bumper at Ayr today.

James & Briony bought Calix, as an unbroken two year old, whilst staying with us.

He came to us to be broken in before making the journey to Scotland. Calix Delafayette is a big strong gelding who will surely make his presence felt over jumps in the years to come.

Ouro Branco (Portuguese for white gold) won the bumper at Carlisle today by 18 lengths. 

It was not unexpected as his first run on the 21 of February was extremely encouraging. 

Ouro Branco as a yearling, sold privately to Nigel Hawke.