HARRY WHITTINGTON BLOG: Harry Whittington, Grade One-winning trainer and ambassador for BETDAQ, looks ahead to his runners this weekend, reflections on the week that has gone and why the ground is still proving frustrating.
A mixed week
We were thrilled with Lantiern at Lingfield on Monday. I thought Nico [de Boinville] gave him a fantastic ride as the horse was very keen, but he just sat and suffered and didn’t panic. He produced him perfectly and the horse quickened away really well.
We’ll probably keep him back now and look to run him under a penalty towards the end of the season. He’s shown he’s got ability, so hopefully he makes up into a nice two mile novice hurdler next season.
Earlier in the week, we were disappointed by the way Khage ran at Fakenham. Gavin [Sheehan] thought the track and the ground beat him, so we’re looking at Ffos Las next Tuesday which we think will suit him more.
He’s come out of the race well and providing all goes to plan, we’ll likely get him out again next week. We’re learning more about him after each race which bodes well for when we get him over fences as that’s where we’ll really see the best of him.
Anemoi finished a good third at Taunton and I thought it was a pretty solid performance. He didn’t quite go forward as he usually does and Daryl [Jacob] said he needs his wind sorting so we’ll be sending him for an operation in the next week or so. It won’t be a big procedure which will mean a fairly short lay-off and we should get him out towards the end of the season.
I was very pleased with Sparkleandshine’s debut at Ludlow. We were expecting him to be quite keen, but he wasn’t, which was very encouraging.
He will get plenty of confidence from that run and he’s in the Imperial Cup. There was lots to like about the performance, so races such as the one at Sandown certainly look on the agenda.
Court Liability’s run at Doncaster was too bad to be true. There must be something that’s bothering him, but we can’t find what that is at the moment.
We’re scratching our heads as he’s a really genuine horse and there is no way that was his true running.
Ground proving frustrating
The firm ground is still preventing us from getting as many horses out as we’d like. I’ve never known it to as dry as it’s been and I read this morning that it might be the hottest day in February ever this weekend!
It’s so frustrating because we simply can’t run horses on ground that’s not suitable. As a trainer, you’ve just got to be really thick-skinned and if plans change, you’ve just got to move on and not dwell on it.
In terms of Cheltenham, you’d have to think there are going to be plenty of odd results like there have been over the whole season. I can’t imagine professional punters have done very well this year, we’ve seen so many unexpected results. You’d have to be a genius to make money on National Hunt racing this winter!
The ground won’t be a problem for Rouge Vif though in the Dovecote at Kempton on Saturday (3.00pm).
He showed he was a proper horse at Kempton on Boxing Day and is more than worth his place in the line-up. The form of that race is clearly very strong, so let’s hope he can reproduce it because that would put him bang there.
Conditions will be perfect for him and we’re confident he can put in another top-class performance.
We’ve got a couple entered on Friday, starting with The Kings Baby at Exeter (3.45pm).
She fell last time over fences, but she showed ability in Ireland and if she can bounce back to that, she’d have an each-way chance.
Later in the day, we run Henrietta Bell at Warwick in the closing bumper (4.30pm).
She’s a nice filly who ran well on her debut for us at Aintree. She didn’t really get a clear run that day and she could come on plenty for it. She’s not very big so I doubt she’ll go over fences but I’m optimistic she’ll turn out to be quite smart over hurdles next season.
