THIS week we are celebrating our first Grade 1 winner of the season. It came in the shape of Irving in the Fighting Fifth up at Newcastle last week. I was very privileged to get the job of driving him up to Newcastle.

Holly White, Irving’s lass, Gemma Groves and myself left early on Friday morning to beat the traffic and arrived in Newcastle some eight hours later. I was fortunate enough two seasons ago to saddle Irving when he won it then and this time, on his seasonal debut, we were hopeful that the spark remained.

Paul was keen to keep him fresh for the race as most of his best form had been early in the season and having shown great patience with Irving who has been hit with training problems throughout his career.

Harry Cobden was having his first ride in a Grade 1 and it was the first time he had partnered Irving in public. As you would expect, it was a small but very select field with top-class performers Apple’s Jade and Sceau Royal heading the market.

Irving showed great guts under a great ride to hold off the mare by the narrowest margin.

I have been to many great days in my job here at Ditcheat but this ranks up there with the best.

It shouldn’t be underestimated just how good a training performance it was to get Irving back to win at the highest level.

We have seen some noteworthy performances from our small team of mares. Tagrita was having her first run over fences when she won at Huntingdon last week. A winner of a point-to-point when trained by Adrian Maguire, she met the highly touted The Organist.

Given a positive no nonsense ride by Conor O’Farrell, she jumped slickly and outstayed her market rival to run out a good winner. She has been a great servant with this being her sixth win for us.

Also on the day at Ascot, Lifeboat Mona ran out a most impressive winner of a handicap hurdle. Coillte Lass rounded off a good period for mares by running out a massive 86-length winner in her match race at Ludlow.

Owned by the new Ditcheat Thoroughbred Syndicate, she is now two from two for the yard, and the daughter of Beneficial looks to have a bright future ahead of her.

I have been very busy on the road this season. Plenty of days out at the races and plenty of miles on the clock but it is a part of the job I really do enjoy and it allows me to get involved in many special days like at Newcastle. In the past fortnight I have had six days at the races and have driven all over the country!

We introduced a lovely young horse at Ascot in a novice hurdle last Friday week: Secret Investor, a winner of a four-year-old maiden in Athlacca for the Monbeg syndicate. He ran in a novice hurdle and jumped the last in front before tiring on the run-in but he is a huge big horse who is one for the notebook.

We have sorely missed Sam Twiston-Davies over the past six weeks but it will be great to have him back today in Sandown. He is a great jockey and a top man to deal with and all of us here at Ditcheat are glad to have him back.

His absence has given all our boys here a chance and we are very lucky to have an embarrassment of riches in the jockey department. From Nick Scholfield to Sean Bowen, Harry Cobden who had his first Grade 1 win, Jack Sherwood now down to 3lb, to the young guys Stan Sheppard, who has a bright future, and Jordan Williams, who rode his first winner for Paul when Aerial won the Fontwell National.

It’s great to see all these guys riding so many winners as they are very much massive cogs in the wheel. They are all in riding out and schooling every week with Sam and they deserve to reap the rewards of their hard work.

This weekend is again Grade 1 action at Sandown as well as the first meeting over the Grand National fences this season at Aintree. The highly exciting novice Marracudja heads to Sandown with Dodging Bullets off to Huntingdon.

For more information on this weekend’s team please check out Paul’s betfair blog at https://betting.betfair.com/horse-racing/paul-nicholls/.