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We head to Dundalk tomorrow evening with 2 runners. Benavente runs first in the Listed Patton Stakes. It is over 1 mile and restricted to 3 year olds only. They all have similar profiles to him although his winning form would be below that of some of the others. It will be interesting to see how he gets on. He needs to be improving rapidly to stick it to a few of these. Hopefully he is. He had a bit of a lull in the 3 weeks since his last run but hopefully he can leave that behind him, put his best foot forward and we can see then where that leaves us. Irish Acclaim is immediately after and while again there are only 7 rivals it is very competitive. He has been lethal when he’s on song, hopefully he is again. The handicapper will be doing his level best to give others a chance, it would be nice to think he’s not there yet. We’ll find out together. This has been an extraordinary week for racing. Christ, that photo made me shudder but I never envisaged the fall out. I don’t know Gordon but have been in awe of his success for some time. What he has achieved is extraordinary and how he has kept on building on his achievements is the racing success story of my lifetime. That’s not overstating it. He has done it all and was on course to keep on doing it. He has kept a semblance of competition in Irish NH racing and he was going to explore every avenue to usurp Willie in the coming years. Again emphasising I don’t know Gordon at all and may have exchanged 10 words with him but he gave the impression of someone living a wild existence. He was doing it all, an outrageous success, one hell of a party and it has all screeched to a halt. Most of us are pulled aside by a spouse, slowed down by family, forced to behave by friends. It’s normally the preserve of youngsters but groups can behave themselves as if everything, literally everything is funny. It is a recurring theme in society and one would hope future generations are equipped to say and know when enough is enough. It’s tougher to teach an old dog new tricks but insight can come at any age. Another point that is worth making, in any one’s life if someone close sets out to ruin you, they will succeed. No one leads such a blameless existence that they can’t be pulled down. Most of us are just lucky enough not to meet or cross that person. It’ll be interesting to watch Gordon put this behind him. Whatever punishment is handed down I hope he has the stomach to claw himself back because back he’ll be.