JESSICA HARRINGTON

All the winter horses are back doing steady work and we’ll know how far forward they are after the weekend. Some of them will start back at Tipperary tomorrow and this time of year is always exciting.

They look great and some of the younger horses did very well over the summer. We had a few that I thought were pretty moderate after they ran in the spring, but a lot of them have put on weight and gotten a lot stronger.

The older horses did very well over the summer and the likes of Our Duke and Sizing John look super. I’m delighted with them.

WOODLAND OPERA

7yo br g (1/193/154311-F)

Robin Des Champs - Opera Hat

He did very well for us last season and ended up winning the big novice handicap chase at Punchestown at the festival. The Galway Plate winner was behind him that day and that race has worked out very well. He has filled out and gotten a lot stronger and I’m looking forward to starting him back. Under that new rule, he’s still a novice until Hattons Grace Hurdle day at Fairyhouse so that’s why we’re keen to get him back into action. He has been away to the Curragh to do a bit on the fibresand there but whether I have done enough with him for his first run remains to be seen. He is in great form though and we’re excited for the season ahead.

OUR DUKE

7yo b g (121P3/1121-)

Oscar - Good Thyne Jenny

The reception he got when he won the Irish Grand National last year was amazing and he really announced himself at Fairyhouse. He is back working away and he looks great. He appears to have done well physically and his aim is the JNWine.com Chase at Down Royal. He was amazing last season and I think it’s great for racing that a syndicate has a horse like him. The race at Down Royal looks the perfect place to start him off. We have a few weeks to go before that, but I couldn’t be happier with him.

SIZING JOHN

7yo b g (211223/321111-)

Midnight Legend - La Perrotine

He enjoyed a good break and he looks super. He has a lot of work to do, but he’ll go to Haydock for the Betfair Chase and I’m very happy with him. He put on a lot of weight over the summer, but he has dropped a good few kilos and we know what his racing weight is. There is a good bit of time to go yet before Haydock so we’ll keep progressing with him. The £1 million Chase Triple Crown is his target.

SOMEDAY

5yo b g (215-3)

Black Sam Bellamy - Like Manner

He is back and he looks really, really well. He’ll start off in a maiden hurdle around the middle of October. He likes a good cut in the ground and I’m looking forward to getting him started over hurdles. He did very well over the summer and he has really strengthened up.

LESLEY DAWN

4yo b f (7-1)

Flemensfirth - Glen Empress

She looked a useful mare when she won her maiden hurdle at Punchestown in the spring. Before that I was disappointed with her debut run in the Tattersalls Bumper at the Easter Festival at Fairyhouse, but we found out after that run she was in season. She has filled out and gotten a lot stronger over the summer and we’re looking forward to getting her started to see what she can do.

SUPASUNDAE

7yo b g (9317/4812412-)

Galileo - Distinctive Look

It’ll be the end of October before we start him off and Alan (Potts) is due over this weekend and he will decide if he’ll go chasing or remain over hurdles. If he remained over hurdles, we’ll find a three-mile hurdle for him in England around the end of October. He looks super and is working away. He is around a month or so off a run.

JEZKI

9yo b g (/122341/1/1285-)

Milan - La Noire

We are going to get him out early and he’ll start off at Tipperary tomorrow. The ground on the inside hasn’t been used all season, so assuming we get some nice ground he’ll take his chance in the Istabraq Hurdle. I think he’s in good shape. Looking back, I think he had a tough year last season, attempting to come back after a year off. Tomorrow looks a good race to get him going again and a good opportunity to get him into some sort of form. We’ll see how that goes, but there is a chance that we might go chasing with him. I’ll school him over fences and see how he feels about it. It could be a nice option for him this season.

FORGE MEADOW

5yo b m (1/2152184-)

Beneficial - Ballys Baby

She is in super form and the chances are she’ll also take her chance in the Istabraq Hurdle at Tipperary tomorrow. It’ll be great to have her back and I’m looking forward to running her. She looks great after her break and she appears to have gotten a good bit stronger. She is working away fine at the minute and I am delighted with her.

ROBBIE MCNAMARA

The horses that we ran last season, we were training them so that they’d improve for it and be stronger with this season in mind, and they are where I’d like them to be now.

Some of the four-year-olds will go for a bumper before they go over hurdles and I’m very happy with them. All the horses look great and, in fairness, I have great staff looking after them. I’m looking forward to getting them started and I suppose it will be next month before we get them going.

Between the 10th and 30th of October we’ll have nine or 10 ready to go and I’d like to think they will run well for us.

I have no orders whatsoever. I tried to get a few orders for store horses and I couldn’t, and I tried to buy a couple of good stores at the sales this year, but they were making too much money.

I thought, after having the few winners that we’d get a few horses, but look I’m not complaining as we have some lovely horses in the yard and we have great owners. I have the capacity to take more horses and if someone wants to send me a horse, I’d be delighted to take them.

There are plenty of people with money in racing but trying to get them into your yard is another thing.

I tried plenty of people, but in saying that we have more quality than quantity.

COSMO’S MOON

4yo b g (59-)

Morozov - She’s A Dreamer

He finished fifth behind Red Jack and Debuchet in a very good bumper at Naas last January. There is one of those auction (maiden hurdle) races for him on the 30th of October and he’ll be good and fit for that. He has plenty of schooling done and he looks great and is working very well. He was never really a bumper horse, but he looks very well after a good break and he has plenty done. That maiden hurdle is over two and a half miles and I think that will suit him. He worked well on Tuesday and I think he’ll be a nice horse for this year.

DASmYHOSS

4yo b g (37-1)

Court Cave - Lillando

He is in a winners bumper at Tipperary tomorrow. He had a very hard race first time out in a good bumper at Leopardstown and that knocked the stuffing out of him.

He won his bumper at Tramore in August and that would have done his head the power of good. He is not a very big horse, so I can’t see him making a chaser, and mentally he wouldn’t be mature enough to jump hurdles yet, so we might try and win a maiden with him at Dundalk and he might be a horse for a good staying flat handicap next year.

Tomorrow’s race looks very competitive but we’d hopeful he can hold his own and after the race we’ll know a lot more about him and can plan accordingly.

GOLDEN ORIOLE

6yo b g (8-)

Gold Well - Site Mistress

I thought he’d nearly win his bumper at Leopardstown last February, but he was pulled up. He spent two weeks in the vets after that and he had a few little niggly issues. He is fine again now and he is probably the best that we have. We are looking at a bumper in Thurles on the 26th of October for him. He is a fine, big horse and he does everything very easy.

He is better than a Thurles bumper horse and we think that he’s very smart. I’d love to win with him, as he has had a rough time of things last season and he is a horse that has just needed a bit of time.

He is a six-year-old and he has flopped on his only appearance on the racecourse, but there was a reason for that and his work at home suggests that he is well above average.

ANALYTICAL MINDSET?

4yo b g (30)

Sendawar - With Conviction

He was third first time out in what was a decent race at Cork and we were using it as a prep run for Galway. Fitness wise it would have done him the power of good, but he ended up having a hard race and then when the ground was soft at Galway, he disappointed.

But he is back working very well and if we got a bit of nice ground he’d take a lot of beating in a bumper. He is only four and if he was five or six I might keep going with him over the winter, and hope for a bit of nice ground between now and Christmas time but he still has a bit of filling out to do so we’ll do the right thing by him.

He is going to be a nice novice hurdler and I’d love him to do well for Ronan Lambe. He is in a bumper at Tipperary tomorrow but we’ll be keeping an eye on the ground.

RATOUTE YUTTY

4yo b f (623-5)

Midnight Legend - Easibrook Jane

She was placed in a few bumpers last season and she has come back good and strong and she’ll go for a fillies bumper at the end of October.

She is in very good form and I think she’ll take a bit of whacking the next day. She has improved and she is working very well.