Tramore Mon, 19th Apr, 2021  Shantou Sisu He is owned by Hugh Laing who is an old friend of mine. Hugh has that horse and West Is Best with me and they have both won two races now. He has had a couple of runs over fences and I might go back over fences with him now, we'll see.

Limerick Mon, 19th Apr, 2021  Rathnaleen Tou She’s a lovely straight forward mare. Kevin is riding real well and he comes in to ride work twice a week. He’s a really good rider. She had done some lovely bits of work with horses that we like so we thought off a mark of 80 she was well-in. I was a bit worried about the rain as her form is on better ground. She’d worked well on grass with a dig in it about a month ago so I wasn’t overly concerned about it. It’s far from heavy winter ground.

Naas Sat, 13th Feb, 2021  Minella Till Dawn he’s a bit of a monkey but he has plenty of ability. Mark knows him well and gave him a good ride today. He’s a bit hot and cold and thankfully it worked out today. He missed the fifth last and got a bit close to the last but other than that he wasn’t bad. We’ll try and find something similar.

Leopardstown Sat, 6th Feb, 2021  Drop The Anchor I'm delighted. I was looking at a full parade ring beforehand thinking to myself 'imagine being the best horse in this with all the big names' but I won it,. I thought early in the race he wasn't winging them all and he had to be tough. He needs a test at the finish of a race. He probably would have gone very close in Fairyhouse if he hadn't been stopped. I was afraid the ground would dry out as he ran here at Christmas last season on quick ground and never jumped a hurdle, he will not handle it. He's not big but he's really tough. It took him a while to win but he needed time to strengthen up. I arrived here not long before Simon won earlier and I said 'well that's probably me gone now because he'll never win the two of them'. He's some rider and it's great to see another potential champ coming along.

Punchestown Thu, 31st Dec, 2020  Stones And Roses He’s owned by the singer Paddy Reilly and his son Ciaran. He’s improving and is a real old fashioned staying chaser. Extended trips are what he likes and he jumps for fun. He’ll probably come back here for the Grand National Trial. I’m delighted to give Brian a winner. He’s an integral part of our yard for schooling and riding work.

Punchestown Tue, 8th Dec, 2020  Unexpected Depth I have to say we weren't expecting that. He had some niggly problems but he seems to be 100 percent now. He's hard on himself as well, he doesn't relax much. we knew he stayed three miles but it was always on good ground he was finishing strongly. Even at home on deep sand he wouldn't be that comfortable on it. We didn't think he was as ready as he is either. James (Reilly) works for us in the yard and that's his first ride since October and it suited to take 7lbs off him. We'll look for something around Christmas, now that he shows he handles softish ground as well as that. We're delighted because it's a long time since we were in the winners' enclosure here. It does everybody in the yard good.