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Lalor winning the Betway Top Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree was a day we’ll never forget, it was hugely emotional.

He’s been in great form over the summer, has really strengthened up and has enjoyed the weather. He’s been schooling really well over fences and we’ll be aiming him at some of the big Grade 1 prizes in the spring.

Richard [Johnson] has schooled him twice now and he’s been really pleased with him. Last week we schooled him at Philip Hobbs’ yard on grass for the first time and we were all delighted with how it went.

 The dry weather has been very frustrating, although it’s the same for everyone.

There’s hardly been any rain and we wouldn’t want to run him on anything quicker than the slower side of good.

We were hoping to start at Exeter but it was far too quick. We then planned to go to Uttoxeter but it’s good-to-firm there which is crazy seeing as we’re now in November.

Having looked at the programme book, we’re now planning to go to the Racing Post Arkle Trial at Cheltenham on Sunday 18 November.

It will be good to give him a sight of the Cheltenham fences, although obviously we would have liked to have got a run into him first.

I’m sure quite a few will be turning up, so we’ll just treat it as a first day out and see how he gets on before making a plan.

A race like the Arkle in March is an obvious target, although we may decide nearer the time to focus on Aintree where he’s won for the past two years.

He’s a really exciting horse and we can’t wait to get him going over fences.

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