American likely to head to Kelso next

I was delighted with American’s performance on Saturday as I genuinely didn’t know whether we’d be persevering with him afterwards.

That was his first proper race of the season as you can put a line through his Newbury effort, and that’s why he got a bit tired late on.

He took a few fences to get warmed up but after that he jumped brilliantly and just found Definitly Red too good on the day.

I’m so pleased that he seems to have returned to a similar level of form as last season and we will now give him a bit of time to get over Saturday’s exertions.

As for where we will head next, it all depends on where he can get the soft or heavy ground that he loves.

The obvious next place to go with him is Kelso in March where he is very likely to get those conditions.

That said, we haven’t totally ruled out the Midlands National and, although quite unlikely, we could supplement him for the Gold Cup if conditions looked like coming up bad.

His options are open as you can see, and I should also mention that he’ll get a Grand National entry too, just in case it comes up soft at Aintree in April too!

If The Cap Fits 99 per cent certain to go for Supreme Novices’

If The Cap Fits is in great form at home.

We've decided that we won’t run him again on bad ground over the coming weeks and instead head straight to the Festival.

I’m always reluctant to nominate a race this far out, but I’d say he is 99 per cent certain to be heading to the Supreme Novices’ six weeks tomorrow.

We will give him a racecourse gallop between now and then, but I’m delighted with him.

Hell’s Kitchen and Canelie head to Leopardstown

I had three entered in Ireland this weekend, but only two will represent us over there.

The form of Hell’s Kitchen in his Boxing Day win at Kempton got a nice boost with the runner-up Mr Whitaker winning at Cheltenham on Saturday.

He holds two entries in a 2m 1f handicap on Saturday and a 2m 5f contest on Sunday.

I’m not sure which race he’ll run in yet and we will make that decision later in the week.

Canelie won nicely on her debut for us at Taunton and will run in the opening mares handicap hurdle on Sunday.

Minella Awards won’t run in the handicap hurdle on Sunday with targets at Aintree and Punchestown later in the spring on our minds.