WE had a winning day though we are still one good race behind at the halfway stage.

The Irish winners are bad for us. Windsor Park was a loser but Nichols Canyon would have been worse. Don Poli was a disaster. We laid one cash bet of €8,000 at 7/4.

Turnover dipped for the Coral Cup but at least we did win something on the race. Dodging Bullets was also a good result as I took a view against Sprinter Sacre. In my opinion these French-bred horses go backwards very quickly. His recent form was not good and form is not something you can switch on and off.

We did good business on the cross-country race. The French horse who ran out [Toutancarmont] was well backed and the winner was a good result for us. It’s surprising more people did not latch on to Rivage D’Or as he was a Tony Martin-trained runner in a handicap who came into the race fresh.

Qualando in the Fred Winter was the best result of the week so far for us. We held almost everything we took on that race. McCoy’s mount Box Office was hammered from 12/1 into 13/2 and Gordon Elliott’s Hostile Fire was also strongly supported.

We lost on the bumper. I liked Moon Racer myself, having seen him win here last November. He was well-backed but it would have been worse if one of Willie Mullins’ fancied horses had won.

Turnover on the first day was way up – we held £250,000 on the day. Wednesday’s takings were about the same as last year, £150,000, and I would expect the same on Thursday. I have already laid a £20,000 bet on Vautour at 6/4!

Looking ahead to the Gold Cup I plan to take on Silviniaco Conti. He threw it away last year and I just feel that the Gold Cup is a horse for a progressive young chaser.