Cheltenham Tue, 12th Mar, 2024  Slade Steel I’m delighted with him, Rachael gave him a super ride and fair play to the Robcour team – they said Ballyburn has beaten us twice and we need to just avoid him, so that’s what we did and it’s worked out really well for us,. It’s lovely to see young horses like him coming through, we’re very fortunate the support we get from everyone and thankfully we get the odd result. Cheltenham is an amazing, special place. We’ve had a lot of luck here and it’s a cliche, but it’s our Olympics and we’re lucky to be able to take part. You definitely breathe a sigh of relief (after having a winner). We’ve never won the Supreme before so I don’t know this feeling, but it’s good. When you’ve had one winner you want two, but we’re delighted to get one. He was one of our big hopes coming here and it’s great for the team.

Thurles Sun, 21st Jan, 2024  Ferns Lock He had to give away 7lb and 10lb, and in that ground that is very tough. The only time he has run on nice ground was here last year and, while everyone thinks he is a big strong horse who likes soft, he is a beautiful mover who wants better ground. After finishing races on heavy ground last year, he would make a palate noise but it was nothing major so we put on a tongue-tie as a safeguard. On nicer ground he wouldn't really need it, but I'll leave it on as he is happy and relaxed with it. Cheltenham is his goal, he is coming on all the time and I'm hoping he'd step up from that again now. . He has an awful size of an engine but is very immature although is learning in every race. We'll build for Cheltenham now.

Navan Sat, 9th Dec, 2023  Slade Steel I'm delighted with that, it was tough work. We'd always hoped he'd be a better horse on nicer ground, he'd definitely have a preference for it, so it's great to see him get through that and get the job done. Rachael was happy and said he idled a little bit in front. He's progressing which is lovely. I don't think he needs to go up to an extreme distance, he's got plenty of gears and he won a bumper well.