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We’re back to Leopardstown after a mixed day yesterday. It was wonderful, as a small outfit, to be part of Guineas Trials day. We hit the road early, the kids turned out to the nines. All was good pre race. Filly looked well, her conduct was good and then bang, her effort was underwhelming. She’s fine this morning, we’ll work our way back up to that level in the coming months and she’ll prove herself in time. We were very grateful to Ballylinch Stud for their hospitality post race and all in all it was an enjoyable experience. Note to self; must do better. Ger Lyons was interviewed last week and mentioned how the standard of the powerhouse training outfits in this country should elevate the performance of the rest of us. We’ll have a good think about yesterday and see what could have been better. I haven’t grafted one like I did Dianthus for her Madrid run and the 19 days may not have been sufficient recovery. Equally I may have been too easy on her in that 19 days. Perhaps it was too big a class jump at this stage of her career. I don’t know yet. Observing her over the coming days will help. I have to be careful with conclusions, horses tend to defy logic and whenever you hang your hat on one explanation it’s not long before it goes out the window. Alcatraz goes tomorrow in the last race and he will be interesting. He’s a gorgeous individual and I have said it before but some of his work has been excellent. I struggle to catch him right for some reason. 4 days out from a run I could be purring and come race day he’s gone a bit quiet.  Most of ours come up to a run on the back of a strong routine and this may not be suiting him.  It seems to flatten him. He worked last Wednesday away from home and it was excellent. He’s had an easy time since, jogging and hacking and he appears well. I’d love him to show what he shows us and if he did and we figured out how best to train him he would give his owners a right bit of craic this summer. It’s worth knowing that about 10 days after his last run he had an abscess released from his lower leg that may have been bugging him for a while. Not a foot abscess but a nidus of infection that was sitting close to his tendon above his fetlock joint. People/punters talk about cliff horses. This is mine, to get him to win some day would mean a lot.