Aintree Fri, 12th Apr, 2024  Jonbon I don’t know why, but everybody loves him, I know JP does as well. He dug very deep today didn’t he? And he had to. His jumping was very slick and it was a great ride – you saw him at his best today. All the guys at home do a great job as if you change the routine, you could upset this fella very, very easily. I think we’ve got the hang of him now, we’re learning!. I always wondered whether we should have been thinking about the Ryanair this year and when we stepped Shishkin up to two and a half we soon realised he actually wanted three. I’m not saying that about Jonbon at the moment as Nico thought that trip was perfect for him around here. I think the two and a half is probably ideal, although I’m trying to get Nico to say he’ll stay three. But we can think about those things during the summer. He is a flagship horse. He’s been there a long time now, you can go back to when he was battling El Fabiolo here in a novice hurdle here two years ago – he’s been at the top for a fair old while. He’s just been a star all the way through and we love him, I hope he loves us!

Aintree Thu, 11th Apr, 2024  Sir Gino We knew what we were walking into and while it is a relief, one swallow doesn’t make a summer as they say. He galloped right through the line in what was a messy race, it was awfully stop-start. His jumping was untidy up the straight but you could see from the speed on the screen, it got slowed up dramatically, the second was pulling hard as well but he’s done what he had to do. He is a very good horse but he’s got a long way to go. He is in Punchestown but that was in case of protestors or bomb scares or something stupid, but I wouldn’t have thought that was high on the agenda. I always had the feeling he was going to pick up the second but you could get a tidier race than that. He’ll have to stick to hurdles next season but I’m not going to think about that now. I know where one person (Constitution Hill) is going, so we’ll have to see if there’s an alternative route.