Good old Heer's Sadie got us off the mark for the new turf season at Brighton this week and came home in her typical last-minute fashion under jockey Christian Howarth who was also riding his first winner for us. It was only last year that Sadie was one run away from retirement having looked out of form but a trip to Brighton seemed to invigorate her and she won that day. Fast forward 12 months and she now has three victories by the seaside to her name with hopefully more to come. She is enjoying her routine of racing and getting turned out in the field afterwards whilst giving her owner John Ford plenty of fun. I have double reason to cheer when Sadie wins a race now as I also own her mother having bought her last year to keep our only mare Engrave company. Both mares have recently had their foals and are back at the yard but have to be kept in separate fields for the first few weeks. The two foals are a lot of fun and full of life so I recommend you make a visit to the yard to see them! Our runners for the week will kick off on Wednesday when Rusheen Boy makes his return to action at Kempton. He had a great winter with two wins and a second place last time before foot problems meant he had to have some time off. He is back to full fitness now and I hope he can continue his progression as he was on an upward curve before his enforced absence. Heer's Sadie may be back out again this week at Brighton as she has an entry there on Thursday. It'll probably be too firm for Fen Tiger to take up his engagement but that shouldn't bother Sadie and you'd hope she can run well again given that she is back to form. Also on Thursday we have Smokey Malone and Grand Duchess Olga in the same race at Chelmsford. I will probably run both horses as Olga is likely to need the race having had a break since a busy spell over the winter. Smokey is fit and raring to go though so he would be going there with a winning chance. The final runners for the week may come at Leicester on Saturday if it is soft enough. Fen Tiger was a bit disappointing last time but he loves soft ground and has won at Leicester before so hopefully he can bounce back to form. The same applies to Mrs Meader who hasn't shone yet this season but is coming down the weights all the time and will find her form soon enough. THREE TO FOLLOW TOP 10 Julia Feilden - 15 Malcolm Roper - 12 Ian Maxwell - 12 Ian Wright - 10 Ross Carson - 10 Rodney Gleed - 10 Sue Tagg - 10 Albert Stevens - 10 John Ford - 10 Dave Allaway - 7 The wait for the end of winter continues and it doesn't look like it will be gone before May is here as our forecast for the coming week is another wet and windy one. Although the horses all seem healthy, it is definitely holding a few of them back in their coats as they are reluctant to let go of their winter woolies just yet because the temperatures are still so low. It will only take a week of good weather to get them gleaming again and you would hope that would be around the corner with the Guineas taking place this weekend. Before that, I'll be at the Guineas Breeze Up Sale with a couple of orders for horses. Some people just go off the times of the gallops and buy the fastest ones but you can miss some good horses by doing that as the ones who need a little longer to develop won't fare well on the day. It takes a mix of ability on the day with the look of more potential to come to find the right candidate. We will also have runners scattered throughout the week starting on Tuesday at two meetings. Stintino Sunset will be first up at Yarmouth and I hope she can run well having had a little break as she usually runs best fresh. She is versatile with regards to the ground and just need a strong pace to chase. Fen Tiger will be down at Brighton that same day and he too should have a decent chance at a track he has run well at before. He loves the soft ground so hopefully it stays wet and he will have come on a lot for his reappearance at Doncaster earlier this month. We will be back down at Brighton on Wednesday with course regular Heer's Sadie. She needed the run when finishing mid division there recently and she should strip a lot fitter this time. The Mouse King has been a long time off the track due to injury so it will be great to get him racing again at Chelmsford on Thursday. He is a big stuffy horse so will need a run or two to get fit again but the main aim is to get him home in one piece and go for bigger targets later in the season. Leon Trotsky will be having his second career run that day and it will be another step closer to handicap races for him. There's a meeting at Yarmouth on Saturday but we'll just have the one runner there with Eloped to be entered. She won on the all-weather for us over the winter and is unexposed on turf so it'll be interesting to see how she fares. I think she should as good if not better on the turf. THREE TO FOLLOW LEADERBOARD Ian Wright - 8 Julia Feilden - 5 Jonathan Kinge - 5 Rob Weston - 5 Gerry Garrard - 5 Dave Morris - 5 Dave Allaway - 5 Paul Brierley - 3 George Evans - 3 Keith Till - 3 |