Here's the latest update on Annie Mc following her return to action:

When a horse has been off for a long while, as Annie Mc had been, it’s not just the race itself that’s important, but the 24 hours after it, as that’s the most likely time any problems – old or new – come to light. We were therefore over the moon when she trotted up sound on Monday morning, and following on from her excellent reappearance at Carlisle, it means everything has gone as well as we could have hoped.

Throughout her career she has always needed her first run of the season to really bring her forward – like a footballer needing match fitness – and we knew that would be the case again here, but for most of the race she jumped beautifully, travelled well through the race, before just tiring towards the end. We were closely matched with the winner, Zambella, going into the race, and she was a deserving winner on the day, but having had the benefit of this run, I wouldn’t have any fears of taking her on again, and I’m sure we’d give her a good race.

As a mare gets older you never quite know if they are still in love with the racing game, but what Sunday’s run also told us was that Annie still retains all her zest for racing. She will have an easy week, to give her time to recover from the Carlisle run, and then we still start to look at her next possible race. The Listed race at Doncaster in late December that she won two years ago would be an option.

It was great to meet the three Coral Racing Club members who were able to attend Carlisle as her owners for the day, I hope they enjoyed the day as much as we did, and by finishing third she’s won them all a nice little bit of prize money!

Jonjo O'Neill