Lalor’s run in the Racing Post Arkle was obviously disappointing, because it was clear very early on that he wasn’t going.

For whatever reason he just didn’t fire. There’s nothing wrong with him, we’ve been through everything and can’t find anything. He’s bucking and squealing at home.

It was the first time he’d had a standing start and he was quite slowly away. He didn’t look happy after jumping two fences.

We’re not using the ground as an excuse. He wasn’t travelling early in the race, so it couldn’t have been the ground and it was soft when he won at Aintree last year.

He had no race whatsoever, he wasn’t blowing and didn’t even have sweat under the saddle when he came back.

We all know horses can have off days, it’s just frustrating when you can’t give a reason for a disappointing performance.

We’ll just put a line through it and go to Aintree. At the start of the season we always thought Aintree would be the main aim because he’s won there for the past two years.

Obviously after the way he won at Cheltenham in November we had to change our plans and decided to go for the Arkle, but he’s run very well both times at Aintree.

We’re just hoping for some decent weather in the lead up to it.

It would be lovely if we could get some nice ground and finish the season with a good run. I do think he’s better on decent ground.

We haven’t lost any faith in him. We know he’s a very good horse on his day and hopefully we’ll see that at Aintree.

Bella was there on Tuesday and she really enjoyed it.

She was off school poorly on Wednesday, so watched it on the telly. She couldn’t understand why we didn’t have a horse running in the Champion Chase!

Bryony is brilliant for the sport

I thought Bryony Frost was amazing both during and after the Ryanair.

She’s ridden a few winners for me point-to-pointing in the past and she’s absolutely brilliant for the sport. She’s so likeable and passionate.

Thursday was an amazing day for racing in general. All the coverage was really positive and that was lovely to see.

National Hunt Chase

Declan Lavery was put in an impossible position in the National Hunt Chase. He felt his horse was absolutely fine to carry on and he finished third, earning connections and each-way punters money.

I think the BHA have gone a bit overboard. Maybe they’ll look at the distance of the four-miler, but I hope they don’t lose the amateur races at the Festival.

Our other runners

Millanisi Boy  runs at Chepstow on Wednesday (16:30). He has been disappointing on his last few runs, but we’ve been waiting for some soft ground.

The trip is probably going to be a bit short for him. It’s a shame Ffos Las was off on Sunday as that race would have been perfect.

Lester Kris is ready to go, we’re just trying to find the right race for him. There’s an option at Wincanton, but we might wait for Uttoxeter at the end of the month.

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