It was lovely to be up at Aintree but it was frustrating that Lalor didn’t run to the form we know he can.

He started fine, everything went to plan and he jumped the first three with plenty of room.

Then he made his move into the race down the back straight but made a mistake at the ditch, which put paid to any forward movement we had. He just seemed to lose his confidence after that.

I say this in the nicest way, but he’s quite a soft chap and there’s probably some confidence issues there. Dickie Johnson thinks he’s travelling in top gear the whole time. It’s difficult to organise yourself when you’re going flat out, you’re more vulnerable to mistakes.

He wasn’t quite the same horse he was at Cheltenham in November, it’s just a shame we don’t know the reason why.

The vet and back physio came in to work together on Thursday. It was as expected, nothing major came out. If there had been, we would have known before and it was just a triple check really.

He’s very lively at home, which makes it even more frustrating.

You can’t pinpoint an issue, but there obviously is one. Be it physical or mental.

You can’t go from doing what he did in November to regressing so quickly without some kind of issue. Whether he’s frightened himself at some point during the season, who knows?

They didn’t go quick early on at Cheltenham in November, so maybe that gave him the confidence. When you step up to Grade 1 level they go that bit quicker.

We’ve still got a few tests we’d like to do. He’ll be out on his holiday soon when we’ve done all the tests. Most problems with horses are fixed by time, so a good summer holiday certainly won’t do him any harm.

Dickie thinks we should go up in trip now and you have to listen to the champion jockey. It’s definitely going to be a consideration. I’m just not sure that’s the reason for his last two performances.

We’ll probably try lots of new things at the start of next season. We might start him off in a graduation chase to try to get his confidence back. It would be nice to come down a level and give him a nice easy time.

It was never the plan to go to Cheltenham first time up in November, but the weather forced our hand. He’s still quite inexperienced compared to a lot of other novice chasers and hopefully with another summer on his back he can return to that level of form.

We certainly haven’t lost any faith in him. We know he’s a very talented horse, we just need to try to work out what’s bothering him and then build him back up again.

Tiger Roll is such an incredible horse

Although the day didn’t go great for us, it was amazing to be there for Tiger Roll, it was electric. He’s such an incredible horse, one that you’d dream to train, ride or own.

Gordon Elliott is amazing to be so open in that he originally wanted a different horse when he bought him. That shows you how much luck you need in this game sometimes. They’ve done such a brilliant job with him.

Quiet spell for the yard

We’re not going to have many runners over the next week or so.

I’m looking forward to Lester Kris running again. He had his first start for us at Uttoxeter. He travelled well into the race but then blew up in the straight. I think he could go alright on his next start.

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