Harchibald shaping up for the Fighting Fifth

It hardly seems like six months since my last weekly column, but I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed following the fortunes of my good friend Ger Lyons who proved an able deputy. Ger gave forthright opinions throughout the season and I hope some of you followed his advice, especially if you were backing any of his horses as he gave some good pointers in relation to where he might win races. I have to say that his suggestion that flat and jumps racing should be kept separate makes sense. He"ll like to read this bit anyway, but solely from an economic perspective it makes much more sense to concentrate on either a flat card or a national hunt card and to move away from the current trend of mixed cards. I don"t think it makes any great difference to the patrons on the day, if someone wants to go to the races, then they will go. They won"t mind too much whether it"s flat, jumps or mixed, but that would make a lot of difference to a jockey or a trainer. With the action screened on television now, you have 'At The Races" and the 'Racing Channel", I find that crowd numbers are generally down, especially at the midweek meetings. The racecourses will always want bigger crowds, but they"re getting a contribution from the television companies and if they want to attract the ordinary racegoer, then they have to start looking at providing certain levels of comfort. Thankfully, a lot of the tracks here are well down that road anyway. I watched 'In the Blood" on RTE on Sunday night. I found it was very interesting although it was obvious that it was made before the current downturn in the economy. I don"t like referring to it as a recession, but that"s where we find ourselves heading at the moment. The number of horses in training will certainly be reduced before this is over, I can see it happening already. Prizemoney and sponsorship will be hit and, at the end of the day, racing is very much an entertainment business and we cannot expect to escape unscathed. I was disappointed that I didn"t retain my title at the end of last season, but on the positive side, we recovered well after drawing a blank for so long and it was good to be in contention for the title at Punchestown last April where we had a few nice winners. Everything is ticking over at the moment, but there"s never a week that goes by that you wouldn"t be worried about something. I can understand Ger"s (Lyons) view and why he concentrates on the flat racing, there"s less chance of injuries, although they do happen occasionally. With jumpers, they have to be minded, they have to learn how to jump properly first and then you have to try to keep them injury-free. Make no mistake about it, it is twice as difficult to train jumpers, they need more work to get them fit, they usually run on softer ground and the shortest race they will run in would be two miles. And it"s not just the horses who have to be minded. Paul (Carberry) was out for a short while with a back injury and he missed a few winners. I was lucky that I was able to call on Barry Geraghty to deputise. Barry had a great weekend with that treble for Nicky Henderson at Ascot on Saturday. I"m very fond of Barry, he was probably unlucky when he started here with me more than 10 years ago in the sense that Paul was here as well, but he benefited indirectly, I suppose. He struck up a great partnership with Moscow Flyer and Kicking King and I have no doubt that he will make a success of this link-up with the Henderson yard. I"m also without 'Slippers" (Niall Madden) who is on the sidelines with a broken leg. I expect to see him back in action towards the end of this month or early December, but he"s still on crutches. Paul won on Fisher Bridge at Punchestown last Wednesday. He may go for the novice hurdle at Navan on Sunday, but both Donnas Palm, which has won twice including a bumper at Navan, and Gay Sloane, which won a maiden hurdle at Galway in August, are in the same race. One of them will run, but at this stage I couldn"t say which one. I was impressed with Fisher Bridge and you"d have to like what he has done so far, we"ll see how it goes. I was also thrilled with Jered at Down Royal on Friday, it was a tough assignment, he was running in ground that previously had proved too soft for him and he was giving 11 pounds to a good horse in Cork All Star. Before the race it looked like a very competitive event and Jessie (Harrington) fancied her horse a lot. The bookies are laying the odds for Cheltenham next March even at this early stage, but that"s their job and that"s what they have to do to drum up business. There"s a long way to go and Jered still has a lot to do to get there. The Morgiana at Punchestown could be his next target, but, depending on how the ground comes up, you might see Harchibald going for that race yet. Archie is in good form, he"s in a listed race at Dundalk on Friday night, but we might wait until the following week with him at Dundalk and then go for the Fighting Fifth at Newcastle. The Fist of God won on Friday, he"s small, but he"s very tough and is very well bred. I was delighted to win a race with him. I even have a horse from Hector, he organised a syndicate in Galway and we have this horse, Steve Capall, he ran at Dundalk last month in a bumper and was fourth behind Peter Casey"s 50/1 winner, Inch Rebel. He should win a race or two and may go at Naas this weekend. Sigma Digital might also go there, but chasing will be his long-term objective. If all goes well this week, you can expect to see Aran Concerto back on the track at Navan on Sunday, he hasn"t run since Cheltenham last year. He will work again this week and if all goes well, then he will run, but he is a big horse and he might need a run or two before we see his best form again. I"m also hopeful that Judge Deed will make it back to the track again this weekend, he hasn"t run since March.