David's news item

The  horses are more forward this year than last, mainly because I was able to bring them in earlier thanks to the very good summer they enjoyed.

The earliest runners look like being Shuil Royale, Westaway and Strollawaynow.  Shuil Royale is being aimed for the Badger Chase at Wincanton a venue where so far he is unbeaten, I would like to run him at Wincanton on 17^th in preparation for the Badger but with this very dry autumn it will be ground dependent.

Westaway seems to have finally acclimatised from coming over from Ireland, he is looking well and is still a maiden over hurdles and I will be looking for a 3 mile maiden hurdle race for him but he does need soft ground.

Strollawaynow has had a number of problems but at the moment seems to be through them.  I have always felt he has the potential to be a nice horse and he will go novice hurdling starting over 2 miles.

Whenindoubtdoit having run very well first time at Southwell disappointed in his next two runs, I am going to put him straight over fences but he has a fair bit to prove.

Urcalin seems to have summered well, he is on a mark of 119 which I think is fair.  He has done all his racing so far over 2 miles but I feel a step up to 2 ½ miles will suit.

Gandalfe has had a wind operation during the summer.  He ran some OK races last year but always seemed to struggle at the finish.  Hopefully the wind operation can correct this and he could be very well handicapped off 103.

Rocky Elsom has also had a wind operation and he is an excellent jumper so he will almost certainly go novice chasing this year.

Topolski seems to be coming back to himself but when we ran him on the soft ground at Stratford Tom Cannon felt he was making a fair noise so he has been lasered and hopefully if we get some reasonable ground he will run again over hurdles, if not we will wait until the spring.

Danglydontask, my only 2 year old in the yard was a bit over faced at Ascot but could be seen to better effect in a lesser median auction maiden although I feel handicaps will be his game.

Starluck unfortunately has had another setback and he will not be back in action until the spring.

I have bought on behalf of Mr Wates, a Kalanisi 3 yr old out of a Presenting mare in Ireland, as yet unnamed, but he is a nice strong type and could possibly be running in a bumper early next year.

Tingo in the Tale will run tomorrow at Salisbury, I wanted a bit of cut but it has now gone soft and there could be too much cut, but he has been schooling and we could give him a go over hurdles after that.