Saturday 28th December 2019

We had a brilliant Boxing Day, Hugo ‘N Taz won the Lincolnshire National on debut in our silks. It was a superb result for his owners and long-term plan came off.

I’ve been trying to buy Hugo ‘N Taz for a few years privately, we finally secured the horse at the Doncaster sales for £19,000 in August. The plan from the word go was to try and win the Lincolnshire National and it came off. We were adamant Hugo was crying out for a trip on soft / heavy ground.

David Pipe did a tremendous job prepping the horse for the race. Winning a long-distance staying chase on first start of the season is a fine training effort, it doesn’t get much better. The owners bought in to what we were trying to do, they landed the prestigious race and prize.

David Noonan gave Hugo a peach of a ride. Hugo's owners have a grand staying chaser on their hands, he's only 8 and just coming into his peak for such races.

Hugo ‘N Taz was our last runner of 2019, it was a fantastic way to finish the year.

Little stands out today from a punting point of view. The best racing takes place over at Leopardstown. It will be interesting to see how Kemboy gets on after the Supreme Racing saga.