COLIN MCBRATNEY

CALL ME BUBBLES

8yo gr g (2383/0-1-)

Stormy River – Tempete Tropicale

Cathal McGovern

Call Me Bubbles is back in training but he won’t be out this side of Christmas. He got a small injury after he won at Loughanmore last year but is back cantering and I hope to have him out at the end of January. The hunter chase at Thurles that Carsonstown Boy won a couple of years ago could be a nice starting point and then we will hopefully be looking at Cheltenham and the Foxhunter with him. There will be no doubts about him staying around there. He is very exciting and I think he is a serious horse.

FELIX YONGER

11yo b g (11131-1P-11)

Oscar – Marble Sound

James Marley & Samuel Downey

The plan is to go to Loughanmore on Saturday and then on to Kirkistown in mid-November. That would give us six weeks before going to Down Royal at Christmas. He got a small hold up after he won at Portrush in the spring so we left him off. The vet checked him on Monday and he is back 100%. We will probably give him a fairly quiet spring to keep him fresh for the Foxhunters at Cheltenham. He is more relaxed than he was as a younger horse. He doesn’t seem to get as revved up in his races so there is no reason to suggest that he won’t stay the trip at Cheltenham. He has a good way of going, so you would have to be hopeful.

KILLULTAGH VIC

8yo b g (12311-11/)

Old Vic – Killultagh Dawn

Rose Boyd / B Anderson / Mrs M Armstrong

He is a brilliant horse to have in the yard. His owners only live three miles down the road from me and I have a lot of horses for them. He came to me five months ago to start walking again and we have taken it day by day from there. He is in full work now about three months and has taken everything very well so far. He is still very enthusiastic and moving really well so we are very happy with where we are.

We are probably six weeks off a run, so I’ll be looking for an open towards the end of November. The likes of Down Royal and Thurles are races that we would then look at before the Foxhunters at Cheltenham.

He is a very tough horse. I broke him as a three-year-old and then he finished third for me as a four-year-old at Largy. We didn’t have him fully revved up for that as he wasn’t for sale and then went to Willie’s (Mullins) and sure the rest is history. He is rated in the 150s over hurdles so it’s brilliant to have a horse as good as him for everyone in yard who work so hard.

QUIET ACCOUNT

9yo b g (1235-U121P)

Jimble – Celia’s Pet

Frances J. Savage

I have him back cantering eight weeks now. He got an injury to the carpal joint in his knee at Down Royal last season but thankfully it wasn’t as serious as it first seemed. He might go for an open in the middle of December and then we will take it from there. He has been a great servant who has come up through the ranks, winning his maiden, then in winners’ company and opens. He is a gutsy horse and he gives his owner a great thrill, it was just such a shame that he was balloted out of Cheltenham last year.

DAVID CHRISTIE

VELVET MAKER

8yo b g (13-20-308)

Policy Maker – Evasion De L’Orne

David Maxwell

He is one to look forward to, a real classy horse. The first aim is to get him qualified for Aintree as David (Maxwell) wanted a horse with two-mile, two-and-a-half mile pace for the Foxhunters around there. I do think he will stay further but he has the speed to lie up in those shorter races. He is more likely to travel to Britain for the two-mile or two and a half mile hunter chases they have over there. He is 90% ready at the minute and we will start him off in an open in the next few weeks and hopefully get him qualified from there.

DARWINS FOX

11yo b g (63316415)

Kahyasi – Parcelle De Sou

David Maxwell

He is still out in the paddock at the moment and is just brought in at nights as he doesn’t need to run until the spring. He will be due back in at the end of the month. There are no real hunter chases for him here this side of Christmas, so I thought we would leave him out that bit longer. We will go for a similar campaign with him again this season looking for two-mile hunter chases in England. The Foxhunters at Aintree will be the target again as he really took to the place in April.

EDDIES MIRACLE

9yo b/br g (11-1F26)

Beat Of Drums – Ballinamona Gold

Ray Nicholas

I was delighted with him on Sunday at Castletown as it was his first run after a good break and it is always tough coming up against those summer horses at this time of the year. He travelled really well to three out and then Barry (O’Neill) sat on him. We had a plan going out that we wouldn’t knock him about if he needed the run and Barry was delighted when he got off him. He has come out of the race really well, so we will look at the first hunter chase with him. He is a horse that I hold in very high regard that seems to go in any ground.

HORENDUS HULABALOO

8yo b g (01192F4-0P)

Beneficial – Renvyle Society

D.M. Christie

We are putting him in a small syndicate at the minute and he is almost ready to run. He will run in plenty of point-to-points this season and has a high rating which will help us get into some nice hunter chases if the right race came along. He is doing really well at the minute and is a fun horse ready to go anytime in the next few weeks.

MARINERO

8yo b g (P247U345)

Presenting – Peggy Maddock

David Maxwell

I bought him over at Doncaster in September for David (Maxwell) and he is a classy sort. He was only beaten four lengths by Thistlecrack at Cheltenham last November and then lost his way a bit, but he was still only two and a half lengths behind Rashaan at Down Royal in June.

He looks a picture at the minute and I am just freshening him up. He has been doing nice bits of work and we will continue at that for another three or four weeks before we get into more serious work. The plan is to get him qualified and hopefully he will be David’s Irish hunter chaser. You would be looking at all the nice hunter chases in the spring for him. We might look across the water depending how the season is going but David has plenty of horses for three-mile races over there so it will be nice to have a good horse for him to ride here.

SAMBREMONT

7yo b g (89BP-2PPP70)

Saint Des Saints – Rainbow Crest

S.J. Hegarty

We brought him down to Castletown on Sunday to school after racing as I think that you need to get those horses away to do a proper bit of work. He galloped away well and Barry (O’Neill) was very happy with him. He is an out-and-out galloper who stays three miles plus and jumps well. Portrush will be the first target for him as Sean (Hegarty, his owner), is from there. After that we might look at the likes of the hunter chase at Down Royal over Christmas and some of those races in the spring. He is still a young horse with plenty of options for the future.

EUGENE O’SULLIVAN

A DECENT EXCUSE

10yo b g (-8956P01)

Fruits Of Love – Brave Thistle

Eugene O’Sullivan

He did it very well on Sunday in a good race, so we will see how we go with him. He is entered at Loughrea tomorrow and the plan is to run once the ground is right. He is a bit ground dependent as he is a summer horse really. We will go to all the tracks that you would get the better ground and then aim for that first hunter chase in November.

I suppose as with all of our open horses, the dream is always the Foxhunters at Cheltenham so we would hopefully go there if he was good enough. The ratings would say he might not be, but he is very consistent and is a great jumper so if we thought he had a change it’s a race we would definitely be looking at.

PETER FLOOD

OURMANMASSINI

9yo b g (FU-11F-1-12314)

Dr Massini – Aunty Dawn

Donal Finnan

The ground was just a shade too soft for him on Sunday and we didn’t really have him fully fired up. He had a long year last season and he is not in that long so we would be hopeful that he will improve a good bit for the run.

We will get him onto a bit of better ground the next day. It would be tough on him to do what he did last year for a second year in a row so we will follow a different route this year. He will have one or two more runs this side of Christmas and then aim him at a hunter chase in the New Year. We would like to try to get him to Cheltenham this time, but we will need to get his rating higher to avoid being balloted out again. It won’t be easy though – he isn’t eligible for maiden hunter chases because he won a bumper.