The Three "A's" didn't quite 'bring home as much bacon' as hoped at the weekend, indeed with the shining exception of DANVILLA, it has been a slightly under-achieving three weeks. ALASI and APPLEADAY both ran perfectly respectable first races of the season and will both be close next time, indeed Mr. McCoy said, 'Iwould not be at all surprised if Apple won next time.' There you have it, straight from The Champion's mouth. AUSTRALIA DAY was never his rediculously mad self and his record-breaking excertions of Kempton had left a little scar. He is now on his holidays and will miss Cheltenham in the spring and be trained for a Maytime comeback, probably at Punchestown? DANVILLA romped home at Kempton and he hope the handicapper has not got her measure yet with a 7lbs. rise in the weights.
Hopefully the current tempest will relent later today and things wont be too miserable at Ludlow. CARBON PRINT would not appreciate too much rain but needs to run, RAJMAGAN will come on from his Kempton debut, while KEY CUTTER is our best chance in the handicap chase. He ran well on his first start over fences at Ludlow and has a good chance today, as long as the ground has not gone too soft.

We launch The Four "A's" today..... ALASI, APPLEADAY, AUSTRALIA DAY and A.P. McCOY!
A very big and important dawn has just arrived, along with the cameras from Sky Sports just to add to the tension, hype and pressure. All three horses have excellent chances, but AUSTRALIA DAY's manic style of racing always makes for nervous viewing. He broke the track record at Kempton last time and with two other front runners in this field, the Wincanton record may be in danger today. ALASI has thrived through the summer and looks to have strenghtened significantly. She is better off at the weights with Banjaxed Girl and is in tremendous form. We never seemed to have APPLEADAY quite right last season, but could never identify any reason for his below-par achievements. I'm sure this horse should be rated near 140 on everything we see at home and for some reason, again one i cannot put my finger on, he fills us with confidence at the moment. He has always run well at Sandown and i think he'll give 'A.P.' a great ride.

COIS FARRAIG ran a very pleasing race at Ascot on saturday, finishing third in a race that had very solid Cheltenham 2009 form all around it. The winner had been second at the festival as has the second, while the fourth had won there! Not bad for a Beginners Chase. 'FARRAIG' is a very serious horse for the future. GTAAB also ran a cracking race at Kempton yesterday, finishing a close fifth in a solid looking novice hurdle, he's really come on for his debut run at Plumpton and will continue to improve. Unfortunately he got 'struck into' behind, so may need three or four weeks before he can run back.
ASHAMMER has looked a total natural over fences and if he'd put his best foot forward, would win his first novice chase tomorrow at Warwick. He won on the bridle at Sedgefield, but inexplicably disappointed us at Wetherby last time. He does love jumping and hopefully the twelve fences of a novice chase will appeal to his 'sense of humour' more than the mere eight flights of a hurdle race......... is that 'clutching at straws' or what!
AUTUMN RED deserves to win a race nearly as much as his owner, Richard Dodson does. 'DAVE' has so much more ability than that we can extract from him on the racecourse, he's become a frustrating but loveable rogue! Tomorrow looks just ideal for him, but it is just plain upto him!

APPLEADAY in his new rug!

The Edgcote Grass Gallop.

Autumn at Cropredy Lawn.

After the terrific excitements of EDGBRIAR, AUSTRALIA DAY and FIRM ORDER winning on succesive days, it has been back to meagre reality for the last few days. LASKARI struck into himself below his left front joint at Aintree and is very lucky not to be heading into retirement just quite yet. Another couple of mm. deeper and it may have been curtains. He never looked happy on the softened ground and with the trainer at Stratford and both owners and jockey arriving late due to a horror accident on the M6, so unable to fully assess the conditions, it may have been a mistake to run. CITRUS MARK disappointed and has been found to have hurt his sacro-illiac joint quite badly. MARLEY ROCA was a little too keen, then outpaced and then stayed on again to be fourth, so ran a confusing type of race! KRISTALLO jumped well at Stratford yesterday, his first run over fences but was outpaced. He will win races on better ground, but that will mean waiting for next spring and summer, so he will now go the Doncaster November Sale next week. There he will be joined by ETERNAL CITY, who ran well for a long way to be third on his debut and only start at Ludlow last week and ROCKSTOWN who looked pretty one-paced today at Wetherby. In these days of paltry prize money for ordinary races, it's so important to be realistic and truthful with the owners of horses that will struggle badly to make significant contributions to their training costs. It may mean an empty stable of two, but it still has to be the correct approach.
One horse that I think will make tremendous contributions to his training bill is COIS FARRAIG who makes his chasing debut at Ascot tomorrow (sat.). We make no secret of how much we think of this horse and he schooled and worked very nicely with TIME FOR RUPERT at Towcester this monday. He will appreciate the slight step up in distance and will hopefully show himself to be way above average tomorrow.

The Record-breaking AUSTRALIA DAY in full flight at Kempton last sunday. Poetry in Motion.

We attempt to keep our current run of form going today at Stratford and Aintree. MARLEY ROCA has a much better chance than the papers surmise as he was nearly carried out by a loose horse last time. He has schooled very well for Sam Jones a couple of times since Bangor and looks in tremendous form. CITRUS MARK needed his race at Huntingdon much more than the trainer had estimated and i expect him to improve greatly today. He has an outside each-way chance. LASKARI runs in the Veteran's race at Aintree and is re-united with Dominic Elsworth, who knows him so well. I don't think this old (!) horse has ever been moving so well or in such fresh form, but he sure is going to need to be to successfully carry top weight. Nonetheless as long as ther is not too much more rain, he has a good each-way shout. ROCKSTOWN is a non-runner at Chepstow.

"SKIPPY" did it!
AUSTRALIA DAY broke the Kempton course record by 0.32secs, as it only took him 3.40.40 secs to fly around the track. It's difficult to evaluate this win as both Katchit and Noble Alan were not as 'ready' as "SKIPPY" and will no doubt have bigger days in the future, but all he could do was 'beat the clock'. To make all his own running and win by ten lengths, makes it a pretty remarkable performance. No predictions about winning Champion Hurdles from me, that it a very much more difficult mountain for him to climb. However, i feel he's earned the right to attend base camp and then see if the conditions are right for him to make an attempt on the summit.
RAJMAGAN needed his run more than expected, but SUSSEX SUNSET was in the process of running a super race when falling at the last. She has never gone that fast in her life, jumped the last a little too big and boldly and just could not organise her under-carriage in time! She had a pretty heavy fall but was unscathed, poor Denis O'Regan got a fair kicking, but thankfully eventually walked away. RED BIRR ran on from a hopeless position to finish fourth and now probably needs to step up in distance. So a bit of everything, but at least a wonderful winner!
GTAAB and FIRM ORDER set off for Plumpton any moment now, not a great journey from here on a monday morning. Dominic Elsworth has his second ride back on GTAAB who ran better than it appeared on the flat at Ascot after a two year absence. This horse enjoys his jumping and ought to go close in this moderate looking contest. FIRM ORDER is maturing and is ready to step up in trip, i just hope the track is not a little sharp for him. If he is able to travel comfortably enough through the race, he must have an excellent chance.