News round-up

Sad news broke on Tuesday morning that Philip Hobbs' stable star Thyme Hill had suffered a fatal injury on the gallops. The nine year old was a triple Grade 1 winner over hurdles and fences winning the Challow Novices' Hurdle at Newbury, Liverpool Hurdle and Kauto Star Novices' Chase at Kempton. The Kayf Tara gelding was placed twice at the Cheltenham Festival and also fourth in the Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle and, in total, won 8 of his 20 starts earning prize-money of £420,557. He was also a triple Grade 2 winner and one of the best horses to have resided at his Minehead base.

Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero have been in tremendous form this Autumn with 7 winners last month and 11 winners from only 31 runners in November. Homme Public provided their Cheshire based operation with Grade 2 success at Cheltenham last week. However, the sport is a great leveller at times and it was announced that their Cheltenham Festival winner Iroko has been sidelined for the remainder of the campaign with a foot injury. The ex-French gelding couldn't have made a better start to his chasing career at Warwick earlier this month and was all set to take high ranks amongst the season's novices. It is a cruel blow but, unlike Thyme Hill, the five year old will be back next term.

In terms of the Top 40 Prospects in One Jump Ahead, the horses featured on pages 20 and 33 (neither have run yet) are both entered this weekend, which is good news. They are two potentially smart recruits and ones to look forward to. 

Elsewhere, one of the horses discussed on page 6 of the November Update (and page 161 of One Jump Ahead) took part in a gallop at Newbury racecourse on Tuesday morning with his Rules debut imminent. He is another exciting young prospect with Graded aspirations for his new connections.