Ben Pauling gives us the latest on his team and admits he's not willing to run Barters Hill while the stable is under a bit of a cloud.
I'm sure it's no great surprise to hear that there's a bit of a head cold going around the yard at the moment and in the circumstances I'm afraid I'm not willing to run BARTERS HILL this weekend after such a long injury layoff.
It’s nothing more than a winter cold but unfortunately you do get a bit of this at this time of the year and a few of ours have been running in and out to be honest.
This is what training is all about, it's about making judgements without being too rash, and when it comes to Barters, his tracheal wash isn't that bad at all. I'm just not prepared to run him as things stand.
He's obviously become quite close to a lot of racing fans' and punters' hearts and I just want him to have a fair crack when he does finally return.
I was really keen to run him up at Haydock and the ground has gone very heavy, but that twinned with the yard not quite firing means we won't be going.
I would like to stress the fact that if treated the right way we'll all be off again after a week or 10 days and it's such a shame because Barters has been showing all the signs he used to show, he looks fabulous, but it’s not fair on the horse to put that on him.
There are plenty of options for him in the near future, there's a race at Sandown on the February 3, there are races at Huntingdon and Newbury coming up too – all of which are options.
What's really frustrating is that not all the horses are under the weather and I'm certainly happy to run LE BREUIL at Ascot this weekend.
It was an option of top weight at Haydock or Fontwell, or here, but with them now heavy I thought Ascot was more suitable. He seems very well in himself and I’ve always liked him a lot. He was beaten at Aintree last time but had a huge weight and the winner has won since so that wasn't a complete disaster at all.
We'll almost certainly run OISTRAKH LE NOIR too. He won nicely last time out in France and he's done nothing but please us. I'd be looking forward to seeing him run.
I’m not risking anything so what I do run you can rest assured I have absolutely no doubts over whatsoever and I won't risk KILDISART, whose trach-wash wasn't perfect.
You've got to do the sensible thing, it's a real shame as he's talented and probably on the right side of the handicapper too, but given a week easy he’ll be absolutely fine.
Reflecting on one of two of our recent runners, I was thrilled with RED INDIAN in the Lanzarote. He ran a great race in third and now it's a question of whether we look to get him ready for something at the Festival. The Coral Cup could be an option but I'll have to speak with the owners to see what they'd like to do.
JALEO didn't have the race run to suit at Wetherby as just couldn't travel as you might have hoped, while CARLOS DU FRUITIER was pulled up by Daryl Jacob at Hereford after making a slight noise turning in. He was considered to be sound by the vet post-race and I'm sure it was just a small issue and something we can get ironed out.
I was encouraged by the run of COOLE WELL at Newbury. He looked like he was going to struggle and I was fearing the worst but he stayed on well to be third so there should be plenty to look forward to with him in the near future.
