Aintree Thu, 11th Apr, 2024  Sir Gino We knew what we were walking into and while it is a relief, one swallow doesn’t make a summer as they say. He galloped right through the line in what was a messy race, it was awfully stop-start. His jumping was untidy up the straight but you could see from the speed on the screen, it got slowed up dramatically, the second was pulling hard as well but he’s done what he had to do. He is a very good horse but he’s got a long way to go. He is in Punchestown but that was in case of protestors or bomb scares or something stupid, but I wouldn’t have thought that was high on the agenda. I always had the feeling he was going to pick up the second but you could get a tidier race than that. He’ll have to stick to hurdles next season but I’m not going to think about that now. I know where one person (Constitution Hill) is going, so we’ll have to see if there’s an alternative route.

Punchestown Wed, 21st Feb, 2024  Cuta Des As Cuta Des As obviously likes that ground and jumped well when Paul wanted her over the last. Rachael (Blackmore, on runner-up Tareze) had to do all the donkey work and Paul nabbed her over the last. She's just taken a while to come to hand and hopefully now she'll stay going. I know the ground is going to be turning a bit better for her but she's coming right and hopefully she'll win one or two before a summer off and then back over fences. She's a nice big type of mare that will jump fences.