Since we hadn’t had enough rain to school Lady Mendoza on the grass here, I’d arranged for her to go to Middleham as there’s an all-weather schooling facility there. We’ve decided to put that on the back burner for now.

We worked her earlier this morning, and even though we worked her with quite a slow horse to give her some confidence, Dermot who rode her was just having to niggle away at her just to keep her going forward. She just seems to be going through the motions a bit like she did at Uttoxeter for Brian [Hughes] and it’s just not her true style at all.

Physically she looks fine, it just seems to be something in her head, so it’s a bit of a headscratcher for us. I think we’ll just take her shoes off and give her a few weeks in a paddock in the hope of freshening her up. She doesn’t need a break physically, but I just think mentally she’s a bit bored of the routine.

We’ve done something similar with another horse on the yard and he came back a different horse after a few weeks off, so I definitely think it’s worth trying.

I’ll keep everyone updated with how she’s getting on, but I think this will do her the world of good, and we can bring her back in September and look to go straight chasing with her then.

Rebecca Menzies, Coral Racing Club Trainer