He won best turned out yet again and looked magnificent in the paddock. this worked very well as it avoided any problems with heat and traffic. On Easter Sunday 21 st April, Gemma and Briony set off early heading south for Southwell with I Am Dandy who ran in the Darby Memorial Handicap over 7 furlongs. She has come on for the run and could be an interesting dual purpose horse for The Craig Farm Syndicate. She has a delightful temperament, was thoroughly professional throughout and this was an encouraging start over hurdles. She jumped particularly well throughout the race and for a four year old, the distance was just a bit too far on this demanding track, so next time we will drop her back to two miles for another mares’ race at Hexham. In the 2 mile 4 furlong Mares’ Novice Hurdle, Apache Valley with Danny McMenamin was having only her second run and this was her first over hurdles. Possibly, he would be more suited to a slightly flatter track but this was another promising run and we are hoping he will go Novice Chasing next season. He jumped and travelled well throughout the race and was not helped by losing a shoe on the bend turning into the home straight but this was good effort. We fitted earplugs and hood and Honourary Giftbehaved very well both in the paddock and at the start where there was a delay. This was quite a competitive race and the winner Glinger Flame is well regarded by Nicky Richards. In the 2 mile Novice Hurdle, Honourary Giftwas ridden by Steven Fox and he finished 4 th out of 12 beaten by 12 ½ lengths. What did you say? Feetronie de Kervi down in The BordersĪt Hexham on Monday 15 th April we had two runners. It Has To Be checking on the horses across the river at Craig Most of the horses are now enjoying their holidays out at grass and we will just have a few kept in training through the summer where there are still good prizes on offer.

Downtime by James Allen