I’M delighted to start this new column for the flat season for The Irish Field and what a way to start than with a winner at Leopardstown on Thursday night.

Cayenne Pepper was my third two-year-old winner of the season, and I feel only now are my juveniles starting to come to hand.

These are really exciting times. You might be a bit surprised to know that we have more flat horses than jumps horses at Commonstown now and that is partly a result of a brilliant season last year.

Alpha Centauri gave me a first classic and won four Group 1s in all and we felt we needed to capitalise on that. We probably never had a better chance to show ourselves off and it’s worked out well as we’ve got a few more horses as result of syndicates we’ve set up and through a couple of other things.

The great thing about flat racing is you’re in a world market. I obviously love training National Hunt horses as well, however it differs from the flat in that most people who get into the jumps are doing it for the love. Flat racing is more of an industry with the breeding cycle a lot quicker compared to the jumps where you might have to wait five or six years before the horse you bred sees the track.

Blossomed

Winning with two-year-olds allows you to dream of the big day. We weren’t really expecting Cayenne Pepper to win on Thursday as she is an Australia filly and I thought she might be more of a miler for next year. She was also a big lanky filly early on and she has just suddenly come to herself and blossomed and is now doing everything right.

I don’t know whether it was the up-and-down spring or something else but all my two-year-olds just weren’t themselves and it is only in the last few weeks that they are coming right. Albigna was kind of like Cayenne Pepper as well in that we didn’t think she would be quite ready first time up but she went and won so that was great.

Between Hills was another winning filly for us at Listowel last week. She actually collided with the rail early in the race and I thought she might have even gone wrong so it made her performance all the better.

We also had two “winners” at the barrier trials at Naas on Wednesday. I ran a few in the first barrier trials at Dundalk last year and I found them very good but I wasn’t that keen on the surface. I was all for doing the trials on grass when it was suggested earlier this year. The main thing on Wednesday was that the ground wasn’t too firm or too soft, it was beautiful ground. They also very sensibly ran each of the trials around the bend which was another good way of educating the young horses.

The whole day out is a hugely beneficial experience for them. They had to be loaded up on the box, they stood in the stable yard, they walked around the ring, they had the jockeys wearing the proper colours on them and then you had the stall handlers there as well. We just used the whole thing as a training exercise and it was great as you’re able to simulate a race meeting without any stress.

What happens next? Well one of the fillies that won her trial, Cool Vixen, is entered at Roscommon on Monday. The other filly that won her trial, Windracer, is owned by the American syndicate Stonestreet LLC, and they are set to come over for Irish Derby weekend so we’ll be hoping to run her there.

More immediately, it’s a relatively quiet weekend of racing in Ireland with just Navan on today and a blank day tomorrow. I think the blank Sundays that have been introduced this year are probably good thing for the industry. We all need a bit more time at home and it’s good for stable staff. That said, we do need to keep in mind that we are an entertainment business and if people want entertainment on Sundays, we need to think are we going to lose these people? It’s a balancing act I think.

IT might be quiet on the track for the next couple of days but with the Land Rover Sale set to start on Tuesday, we’re heading for a busy period. We have a few orders going up to Goffs and luckily for me, I have Kate, who does most of the National Hunt sales for us, where as I do most of the flat sales.

It will be interesting to see how things go without Gigginstown. A lot of people are saying it’s a bad thing but big owners have left both flat racing and National Hunt in years gone by and there is always someone to come in and fill the void. You have to look at these things positively!

Camphor and Onlyhuman should go close at Navan

WE run five at Navan today and the pick of the bunch might be Camphor in the three-year-old fillies’ maiden at 4:35. She is a Camelot filly and has been very good on each of her two starts at Cork, showing improvement between runs. It looks a good maiden, with 17 fillies there but we’d be hopeful she’ll go close. In the same race, For Your Eyes is ready to start off. She was very good on her debut run at Cork last year, finishing third to Zagitova in a race that worked out nicely.

We’ve been really happy with Onlyhuman since he joined up with us. Going up in trip seems to have improved him and he showed a good attitude to win a good handicap at Limerick. He looks to have another good opportunity to win today.

We run two two-year-olds earlier on the card. But You Said, a No Nay Never filly, ran only alright in a Naas maiden first time up. We’d be hopeful she can improve on and she’d appreciate an ease in the ground. Jungle Cove (Mastercraftsman) was a little disappointing in the maiden won by Arizona on Guineas weekend but he has improved in his work since.