The racing year is coming to a close, though it isn’t the same as the calendar year.

Swift Hoffman will treated for six weeks with his sore shoulder but with nothing worth chasing in the early part of 2016, he will get a well earned rest. He has been going for most of 2015.

We still have the Betfred Eclipse to look forward to and I expect to have Ascot Woodie, Burgess Oscar, Swift Carter and Newinn Yolo involved.

Yolo clocked 29.73 in a 500 metre trial at Nottingham on Monday night. At one level, you could say that is a long way behind his best; he did 29.26 on the same track last year.

On the other hand, he was just two spots slower than Making Paper who has just won the Henlow Derby.

The truth is, we don’t know if Yolo will ever return to his best after his injury at Wimbledon. It is bad enough when a dog is lame the next morning, but when they walk off the track lame, you always fear for the worst.

It is five months now since the injury and he is certainly back and competing at some level, which is great news.

 

After the Eclipse we have the Laurels at Belle Vue where I hope to enter Vatican Baloteli, Camp Joker, Newyork City Boy and Aero Inferno with Peerless Trio for the Oaks.

Most of the seasoned dogs will then get a break. But I will try to get some races into the unraced pups before Christmas.

It might seem a bit early, but we have a lot of potentially very good young dogs. If the weather is bad in January, and you can’t get races for them, you go into races like the Monmore Puppy Derby with inexperienced pups.

One of the newest pups, Newinn Champ ran a cracking trial at Nottingham on Monday.

He is a July ’14 whelp, having his first four-bend trial and he had never been around the track before. Yet he still clocked 30.00 for the 500 metres, just 27 spots slower than his half brother Newinn Yolo.

In my book, that was a staggering run.

 

Looking further ahead, we have just arranged for Rebellious Queen (the dam of Camp Joker, Newyork City Boy and Latin Charm) to be covered by Tyrur Big Mike.

He seems to be one of the most exciting young dogs around, with a Derby winner to his name (Ballymac Matt) and looks an idea three by three Sobbing Sal cross.

Fingers crossed.