Punchestown Fri, 3rd May, 2024  Don'tstopthemusic We always thought he was a nice horse, it just took him quite a bit of time to mature,. I had been gearing him towards maybe a summer campaign but he's done a piece of work with Fastorslow in the last month, maybe once or twice, and we were very pleased with what we could see. . We won this two-and-a-quarter mile bumper with Longhouse Poet before so I said we'd let him take his chance in it and we got him here in nice shape. . We'll give him a little break now and have him back for Galway. . He's had a run in a hurdle race, the Christmas before last, and then was second in Galway. There were a lot of winners came out of that bumper, it was quite a good race on the day and we were happy with him then. . He takes a bit of time between races but maybe as he gets older it might come easier to him.

Punchestown Thu, 2nd May, 2024  Wingmen We think he's a proper horse. It just didn't work out the last day but he's a very good horse. He's a very quick horse but he'll definitely stay further anyway.

Aintree Fri, 12th Apr, 2024  Arizona Cardinal It is a massive emotion as the horse didn’t have it easy at the beginning of the season with a lung infection. It took a while for him to get over that, but he is a lovely horse and an absolute gentleman. It’s a massive team effort. It was seven or eight months ago when we started looking at this race, mainly because we thought his jumping was superb. We took him down to Lambourn to have a pop over the National fences and he was class and I don’t think he’s made a semblance of a mistake today. I thought he was beat and you’d be silly if you didn’t think he was beat, but the fact that he stays three miles has helped him on the soft ground. He’d jump round, quite whether he’d get that trip (I’m not sure). We might try to stretch him to the Becher Chase and give it a try. He’s obviously relished the fences.

Aintree Fri, 12th Apr, 2024  Kateira She’s a good horse, we came here last year for a Grade One which shows you what we thought of her but she just got lost in the autumn and winter on very bad ground. I actually stepped her up to three miles but when you do that it is because you are struggling. What she wants is two and a half miles on decent ground and if this race was yesterday it would probably have been too soft for her. She’s just really good, I’d have no worries stepping out of handicaps again after that, she might go to Sandown on the last day. Since this meeting last year if she didn’t end up being a graded horse this was the race we were always looking at.

Naas Sat, 10th Feb, 2024  Answer To Kayf we gave Answer To Kayf an entry in the Albert Bartlett and I was also thinking of going for the Martin Pipe - we’ll see how he comes out of today. Eighteen months ago he couldn’t win a novice riders’ maiden in Wexford. He had a lot of problems with his hocks and was lame after his maiden hurdle run in Killarney last year, when beaten 24 lengths. He was then put out on grass and came in sound and hasn’t taken a lame step since. He’s twice the horse he was. It’s great as Denis (O’Connor, owner) has been a great supporter. He’s really patient and it’s great that it has paid off for him. we always hoped after his Limerick run that he’d be good enough to win this but when I saw Willie’s two in it, I was worried. He jumped really well and hit the line well. He did everything that I hoped and more. There is a great prize for the Final of this Series in Punchestown and I suppose that is probably the main aim. Whether we take in Cheltenham in the meantime we’ll see how he comes out of this. I’d say he’s flexible in terms of trip. He’s not a slow horse and I didn’t think he was stopping there at the finish. Johnny’s 7lb claim was obviously a big help today and we’ll see what the handicapper does with him after this.