Mark Walford October stable tour

Mark Walford has been enjoying a fabulous summer and excitement is already building towards this national hunt campaign.

We have eight horses in training at Cornborough Manor - with new boys Carrarea and Ashington amongst those set to fly the Battenberg flag this winter.

Racing Manager Craig Talbot visited Mark to get the lowdown on all members of our team.

Ashington

He’s about ready to run and we are looking at giving him a spin at Wolverhampton on the 17th. We want to give him a run on the all weather just to build him back up, it will put him spot on for a jumps campaign. There’s some nice races to run him in  - he is a Saturday horse. He has done nothing but impress us so far. His main aim will be chasing, he can hit flat spots in races, but anywhere between 2m and 2m4f will be ideal. He is rated pretty high and we will look at getting him really enthusiastic for 2m races. He will aim for the big race at Sedgefield he won last season and he is not ground dependent. 

Buford

The wind op has definitely helped him and the vets were really happy with how it went. We are now building him up and getting him into a normal routine. He will be back on track in six weeks if everything goes to plan. He will likely go to the all weather. I wouldn’t want this horse slogging around in bad ground, he will never do that, Decent ground for jumps, somewhere like Doncaster. When he won at Doncaster on the flat he looked really progressive and I have no reason to think we won’t get him back into that kind of form. We will go hurdling again with him, it will be the likes of Donny and Musselburgh, where you get decent ground.

Carrarea

We are really pleased with him since he joined us and we are looking forward to his debut at Hexham tomorrow in the two miler. He has been popping a few hurdles and he has form on soft ground. You never know quite what you have to race against but he will have a very good chance on known form. We will keep it simple and look forward to Saturday.

Diamant Sur Canape

He has grown up a bit and I was really pleased with his last bit of work. He always schools well. He has moved to a new stable on his own. He hates the company of other horses in a barn. He’s fine out in a field, but when he is in a stable he just wants to be alone. He kicks and kicks if he isn’t, so we have put him in a new stable on his own. He went and had a nice big holiday and he will need a handicap mark before we see him at his best. We will look after him and then hopefully it will be 2m4f handicaps. He is still a baby at 4 and you don’t tend to see the best of proper national hunt horses until they are 8. We are hoping to get 6, 7 or 8 runs into him this year  - hopefully win one and we have a chaser for next year then. I still think about that day at Doncaster, it was one of the worst days of my career! I have rarely been as upset as when I got back that night - but we have put that behind us and he will have a nice season. 

Event of Sivola

He looks fantastic and he is ready to roll. He has done some loose exercise today and we do that once or twice a week. We have got plenty of graft into him and he is ready to go. I couldn’t be happier and he is as fit as we can get him first time out. He won first time out last season and then you can write the rest of last campaign off as our horses just were wrong. He will be more consistent. He will have an entry in the Durham National next weekend and he will run as long as there’s nothing rated very high which would see him say 10b out of the handicap. I don’t want him 16lb wrong or anything, 4lb you could get away with. He can run on any ground from heavy to firm and we have a Cheltenham back up plan as well. If we can get him in the right race he will have a chance wherever. 

Fenna’s Loss

We are just building him back up after he bashed his tendon at Bangor, you can write that run off. He has healed nicely and now we are getting him fit and ready again and hopefully he will be ready in four weeks. He’s back in his normal routine and soft ground is probably just what he needs. He is still well handicapped and there’s lots to look forward to with him. He will jump a fence in time. It won’t be this season, but there’s no reason why he won’t be a chaser, he has a proper national hunt pedigree. 

Ghadbbaan

He was incredible at Ripon and won really well. I was in the parade ring at Chester at the time and was craning my neck to watch it on the big screen! He has been wonderful and had plenty of racing from him. He has probably only run a bad race once this season and that’s when I ran him too soon. He keeps battling and we are looking forward to York on Saturday. He will have Joanna Mason on board and she knows the plan. There will be a strong pace in a big race at York and he has more than done his job this year for us, winning twice and placing at some big tracks. It will probably be his last run of the year, he has earned a holiday. I toyed with the idea of hurdling and he’s not a complete natural, but he is still so good on the flat, I am thinking more of the same next year. He will do us proud again next summer. 

Moonlight Glory

She’s happy, she’s back and she’s in good form. Everything has gone really nicely with the training. She was a bit of a handful until we got the freshness off her and she thrives on routine. She gets turned out before she exercises every morning. As long as you keep things the same she is great. We need soft ground for her. We have looked at Hexham and Ayr later this month on the 22nd and 24th and we will try and qualify her for the Northern Lights finals. It has all gone nicely and we are ready to go. She should win a race or two for us. She ran a cracker at Hexham and a good one at Sedgefield. There should be a race or two on soft ground for her.