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A puncture on the way home from racing, a real thrill. Making a long day longer. An older gentlemen stopped to enquire if I needed assistance. His jack was better than mine, then he followed me to a garage to make sure I got sorted and then offered to follow me an hour out of his way in case I had further trouble. This is a great country. A smoother run to and from Navan would be nice. We go with 2. A couple of years ago I received a phone call, someone enquiring about buying a 3 year old filly I had. I told him to forget about it, she was no good and we’d find something else. We did and we’ve had bits and pieces of luck together and he’s a good owner and friend. The filly was useless and I think he appreciated the attempted honesty. The other side of that coin was Beach Bar. When I got him first, I received a few enquiries for my half share. He was a lunatic, I couldn’t recommend him and put everyone off. When he won 4 races over the following 12 months I’m sure there was plenty of head scratching and profanities. The point being it’s very difficult to know. The best scenario when pulling together ownership is gather together people and figures and source your horse thereafter. This brings me to Littleton Hall. He runs in the 5f sprint handicap. I bought him to syndicate him. It didn’t happen immediately. There have been expressions of interest but I don’t know where I sit with the horse himself. I’ve been happy with him at different times and less so at others. I’ll run him and if he shows enough and people are still interested I’ll syndicate him for what he has cost me. If he shows little I’ll stomach him and have him as a lead horse or for Dundalk. He’s grand, some of his 2 year old form is poor and some of it, well one bit, is OK. If he travels and finishes in the middle of them tomorrow then I’ll be happy. He had one bit of work but it was unsatisfactory as his work partner was very green and it told us very little. He should improve plenty. A boring ramble about a modest horse, wouldn’t be a first for me. Golden Valour runs in the last, a competitive handicap. He has little or no turf form and that is the doubt. Is he better on synthetics? The handicapper says so and he’s right plenty. However if he is the same horse as 89 days ago then he’s 5lbs well in and should run well. He worked with Chessman last week and pushed him to a neck. The video is on a previous post. That’s good work by any measure, hopefully he carries it through. Finding horses to take you to a big day is hard, we have very few possibles but he’s one. Tomorrow should tell us plenty. No punctures tomorrow please, not least our ambitions for this fella.