Toe times in right in Leopardstown opener

We were looking forward to her winning a maiden hurdle sooner but obviously the ground made a difference. We were hoping that she would travel on this ground,. She didn’t go on the ground at Fairyhouse. She didn’t travel at all on it and just got stuck. This ground makes a difference as she can use her turn of foot. I told her to get her settled but I thought they’d stay bunched. She was lucky to be able to come from off the pace and make no mistakes. If she had made a mistake she was in trouble. She might not have the experience for jumping in a handicap so I was hoping she’d win a maiden hurdle and she’s done that now. Hopefully she doesn’t go up too much. I think she’ll go for a handicap now.

Justmemyselfandi makes the breakthrough

I’m very pleased. His best run was his last run and that was on the best ground he’s ran on so I chanced the good today,. I’ve always loved him but he struggled a little bit on the deep deep stuff. Brian said he was jumping every hurdle like a fence so hopefully it’ll get a little bit lower and quicker. He’s no superstar but he’s progressive and on an upward curve. He’s a lovely sound clean horse. I fell in love with him when I saw him galloping around Monksgrange and we ended up buying him. We’ll look at a rated novice hurdle or maybe a handicap with him. We’ll probably dip our toe into some kind of a novice race. I mightn’t aim too high over hurdles this year and get some experience and mileage into him. He has a lovely pedigree and his dam is a half-sister to a good horse that Ted Walsh had, Southern Vic.

Yorkhill proves class act

He takes a good grip. He jumps a bit left but that suits around here,. Ruby rode him with confidence but he was obviously very strong when he took up the running going into the back straight. We thought there was enough pace in the race but he managed to change gear and made the running. Ruby was just holding on to him in front. He jumped well and did what he had to do. We thought we would be getting a lead from the two in front but obviously our fellow’s cruising speed is a lot higher than theirs which means we could come back in trip if we want. His pedigree and everything suggests he could go out in trip but whether he’s too strong to go a longer trip or not I don’t know. At least he got today’s job done and we’ll look forward to wherever he goes the next time. I’ll get him home now and see. I’ll have a chat with Ruby to see whether he wants to go again with him. Experience is no harm for those novice chasers. He’s easy enough to train but a challenge to ride. David Casey rides him in the morning and he settles well. He gets him on his own. When you try to keep him in company might be the issue but he’s not as bad as a lot of other horses. I’m not trying to interfere with his jumping much and I’m hoping with more experience on the track he’ll get out of that habit. He makes enough ground jumping and he’s got a good engine so I’m not inclined to interfere with him much.

Kennedy conjures late surge from Phil

He said he was flat out the whole way. I’d say because it was his first run in a handicap he was a bit novicey,. He’d maybe be a bit better with a bit of light but thankfully he had his head in front at the right time. I thought he had a nice mark but you always worry about lack of experience. If you watched him in the Drinmore he got in behind a few, backed off and was a bit cowardly. These are the race we want to win so we had to give him a rattle at it. When I saw the entries I thought he was well weighted. We have Cheltenham as an option but he’s still a novice so we might miss that and keep him at home. There is plenty of good prize-money at home. I’d say on that ground he’d stay any trip but not on heavy ground. We’re very lucky to have the bunch of horses we have. These horses are all bought to be graded horses and if they just fall below the pecking order they can end up getting in to these races off nice marks. I’m in a lucky position to have not just Gigginstown but all the owners with these type of horses. We’ve won for a variety of different owners.

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