Lady Mendoza hasn’t put a foot wrong or missed a day’s work since she joined us here, she’s sound, hardy, and eats well.
This is important as it means they can take their work well if they’re taking plenty of ‘fuel’ on board – and is a real pleasure to have in the yard, I can’t find anything to dislike about her.We took her for an away day last week, to the former trainer Denys Smith’s yard at Bishop Auckland. He has a lovely mile and a half turf gallop which we worked her on, not only did she work very well, but the whole experience would have been great for her, travelling her in the box, having a change of scenery, she would have learnt plenty. We might take her again this week, it all depends on how much rain we get here, if our gallop is too wet it might be good take her to Denys’ again.
She’s always schooled over hurdles very well, I think she would have been well schooled in Ireland before she came here as well, so I think we will start her off over hurdles, rather than in a Bumper. There is a 2 ½ mile Mares’ maiden hurdle at Newcastle next Thursday, 17th, that looks ideal for her. Nathan Moscrop has ridden her in all her major work here, he knows her well, and is looking forward to being on board for her debut run.
Longer term, she’s definitely not a mare who will want to be running on deep, heavy winter ground, but fortunately we have tracks such as Musselburgh and Doncaster that never seem to go too soft, even in winter, and as things stand, Newcastle hasn’t had too much rain so hopefully next week’s going will be spot on for her. As always, we will learn so much more about her after she’s made her debut, but both Nathan and I are very excited to see her on the track.
Overall, the horses have been running well enough recently, although it would be nice to turn a few of the placed runners into winners. Fortunately we got winners on the board over the summer, and most of our winter jumpers will improve for their first run, so there’s plenty to look forward to at this time of the season.”
Rebecca Menzies
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