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We have very few runners for Dundalk this winter and Lazy Susan is one of the few and she goes tomorrow. The weather of late has been extraordinarily brutal and I’ve a new found respect for those National Hunt trainers keeping the boot to the floor in this crap. Trying to keep horses healthy and exercised is challenging for man and beast. This lady is well drawn and she has progressed from run 1 to run 2 but she needs to take a big jump forward tomorrow. It’s a reasonable race and whether she has that progression in her I just don’t know. She has only shown anything in Dundalk. She worked OK there one day and her runs are OK so we’ll see. We’re building away towards the start of the flat season as we speak. Second hand horses that are new to us, some of last year’s team and a few 2 year olds. They are all in a simple daily routine finding their own way to fitness. Hope is what sustains you in this game and the place is full of it at present. This is a crunch year for me personally. Things need to level out a bit. Like any job it can consume you, to the detriment of all else and I’d like to see this year finish with a modicum of success but mostly with a structure of staff, horses, owners and facilities that allow us to compete but be normal at the same time. A brief anecdote I was 40 summer past and my wife organised a small get together of family, parents, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews etc. I made my excuses early as I needed to be up at 4 to take a filly for a clandestine piece of work at a local racecourse. I’d like to change plenty about last year but I’ve a feeling I’ll struggle. Hopefully we’ve learned plenty and 2020 will be more enjoyable. So far so good.