ALAN FLEMING
FOXROCK
9yo b g (521111-)
Flemensfirth – Midnight Lady
Barry Connell
The main objective with Foxrock will be getting him to the Foxhunters over in Cheltenham and his season will geared around it. There is no race suitable for him until Christmas, so we will go from there and tip toe our way to March taking in a couple of suitable hunter chases.
DECLAN QUEALLY SNR
MINELLA FOR VALUE
11yo br g (R1121611322-)
Old Vic – Nightngale Express
Mrs B. Queally
He is just back in a month now and seems to be in good fettle. I imagine we might start him off at either Ballindenisk or Dromahane. We will probably look to keep him point-to-pointing. He is qualified for Cheltenham but it is very competitive and he is a year older so I am not sure if we will go back again. We will see how we are getting on. There is the option of a hunter chase around Christmas too, but point-to-points are the main plan with him.
ENDA BOLGER
ON THE FRINGE
12yo b g (-24P5-)
Exit To Knowhere - Love And Porter
J.P. McManus
He is back in full work and I think we will probably give him a run in a point-to-point before Christmas to start him off and then he will go to Down Royal for the hunter chase that he won a couple of years ago. We decided to start him off a bit earlier this year and he seems to be working well. For some reason, last season was just a no go year. We did all the tests on him but nothing showed up in any of them. Jamie (Codd) was at a loss to explain what was wrong as he had won on him around Aintree. He just didn’t fire. I think we’ll start off in a point-to-point and after Down Royal build a spring campaign around that.
GILGAMBOA
9yo b g (5542B-5)
Westerner - Hi Native
J.P. McManus
He had a long old lay off after he was brought down in a conditions race at Mallow as he had a chip taken out of his knee. We gave him plenty of time to recover from it and decided that we would give him a run back in point-to-points. He ran at Castletown but it turned into a very hot race and he would not have been fully wound up for it. He will stay point-to-pointing now for a while and then we will make a plan for the spring.
STAKER WALLACE
6yo b g (44-13-)
J.P. McManus
He is not back with us yet. He ran a great race at Leopardstown behind Foxrock and On The Fringe, but he got a bit jarred afterwards. We had started him back and have a hunter cert for him but we think he needs a bit more time, so he will not be out until the New Year, probably around March.
GRAHAM MCKEEVER
BALNASLOW
10yo b g (525212-)
Presenting - Noble Choice
Mrs M.E. Hagan
He won’t run until Christmas and most likely not until the New Year to wait for some nice ground. He had a hard season there so we want to be sure to give him a good break. He is doing some road work at the minute and we will aim to target at all the big hunter chases in the spring that he ran in last year - Cheltenham, Aintree, Punchestown and Stratford.
CHOSEN DREAM
9yo b g (1F44-122B-)
Well Chosen - Peoples Dream
Mrs M.E. Hagan
He hurt himself at Downpatrick in March when he was brought down in that pile-up. He hurt his shoulder but he is back okay now. I am hoping to run him somewhere within the next six to eight weeks, definitely this side of Christmas. He will start in opens. He is definitely better on better ground but I think the older that he gets that he is maybe handling other ground too.
PAURICK O’CONNOR
LAC FONTANA
8yo b g (90-8-500-)
Shirocco - Fontaine Riant
Three Dudes Syndicate
I got him for just £11,000 at the Doncaster sales. He is actually a novice over fences. It’s not that common to get a Grade 1 winner who has never run over fences, especially to come back point-to-pointing. All his schooling has been very good so far and we took him to Tipperary and he jumped perfectly around there. He only works once a week because we do plenty of swimming with him. He is about two to three weeks away from running so we will look for an open race to start him off in. He is still only an eight-year-old, so we will see where he fits in when we take him racing and take it from there. I haven’t made too many plans for him before his first run.
SAM CURLING
B L SWAGGER
9yo b g (441122-)
Saddlers’ Hall - Designer Lady
Tessa Foreman
We will start him off in an open lightweight at either the end of this month or the start of next month. He spent the summer with his owners and has done very well. I am a lot happier with where he is now compared to this time last year. We didn’t have a great autumn last year, there were just a couple of niggly issues that held us up. He did well in the spring winning two opens and then finishing second in the Joseph O’Reilly at Fairyhouse.
He will likely stay point-to-pointing as his owners are real point-to-point people and then we will see if the right hunter chase came up in the spring we might see how we are progressing. But I am a lot happier with him heading into this season.
TOM DREAPER
AUPCHARLIE
11yo b g (41167-210-)
Daliapour - Lifra
Knockalough Syndicate
He is a well-known horse and everyone is aware of all that he has done in the past. He has been to most places and is a cracking old horse. We have him in a bit better form this autumn compared to last season and he will start off in the ladies open at Tinahely on Sunday and we will take it from there. If after a couple of runs where he was still enjoying it, we might look at a hunter chase. But we won’t have any high aspirations with him.
We will try and place him so that he is the best horse in any of the open lightweights that we can. He is running in the colours of a syndicate with a bunch of lads from Clare who are just looking for some fun days racing with him.
CAVITE BETA
11yo ch g (311122-)
Old Vic - Kinnegads Pride
Beta Chance Syndicate
He was entered in Moira and will run now once the ground is right for him. We will stick to soft ground with him this season. He is owned by a group of locals who get a great kick out of seeing him run. The plan will be to stay with opens for most of the season and we may look at a hunter chase later in the year, but he is 11 now, rising 12. He has a great attitude, it is just a case of keeping him right.
KAYF SUPREME
8yo b g (35-21P-P-)
Kayf Tara - Sonnet Supreme
Leon Tormey
He won his beginners chase at Thurles with Davy Russell and we had big hopes going to the Punchestown Festival but he cracked a bone in the Pat Taaffe. We got him back after a year off to run at Navan in April but he did more damage there. He is hunting every week with Venitien De Mai and is running for a local man, Leon Tormey.
We will start him off in the ladies open at Tinahely on Sunday alongside Aupcharlie. He was a solid 130 horse, so if he did come back, we could go the cross country or hunter chase with him.
SIZING COAL
9yo b g (1FP2-)
Presenting - Hollygrove Cezanne
Alan Potts
He won a conditions chase in Sligo at the start of last season and all roads led to Aintree for the Becher Chase from there. He took a heavy fall with Mark Enright at Valentines over there and it just never clicked after that with him.
We will mix point-to-pointing for now. We will play it by ear with him as his mark would be just below what you would need to be National level, so he could go the cross country route in the spring.
SIZING SOLUTION
9yo b g (1223P115-)
King’s Theatre - Toulon Rouge
Alan Potts
He was a credit last year and tipped away in open lightweights. The Foxhunters at Aintree did not work out for him and Richie Harding was great, he looked after him when his chance was gone and that allowed us to win two hunter chases at Cork and Killarney afterwards.
He will mix open lightweights and hunter chases again and he might go over the banks in the spring. He is a good ground horse so there will be no hunter chases suitable for him this side of Christmas.
SIZING TITANIUM
9yo b g (04221-24/)
Flemensfirth - White On Red
Alan Potts
He is a frustrating horse who has never had a serious injury, but he has had plenty of hold-ups. He finished second to Kitten Rock on his penultimate start in a beginners chase, that horse is now rated in the high 140s over fences. He hasn’t run since December 2015 but we are hoping to get him out in November. We will start in open lightweights and then look at hunter chases. He is a horse who could go back to the track. We just need to keep him sound.
VENITIAN DE MAI
8yo b g (465F6F-3)
Network - Meylba
Alan Potts
He got a heavy fall in the Paddy Power at Leopardstown last Christmas and we thought that we had him as a real National horse, as he had won the Leinster National at Naas, but we could never him properly back on track as he got another bad fall in the Kim Muir at Cheltenham.
It’s tough on a horse to get two bad falls in the space of three months. We started him late this season and he ran adequately when he finished third on Sunday at Loughrea. That was his first piece of real work. We are looking at going down the cross country route with him this season and mix those races with open lightweights, so he could go to Punchestown in November for their first cross country race.
He hunts with Nicola Ennis every week and is schooling well.