Smiling Eliza at Fairyhouse and Shirleys Goldwell at Limerick

Club favourite Smiling Eliza was out again just over a week after her excellent run at The Curragh and with Declan McDonogh on board, we were hoping for a result from the dream team. She got off to a slow enough start but Declan soon had her up with the leaders where she seems to like to be. To get her back up there, it looked like he was on a bike peddling hard and then freewheeling on repeat 3 or 4 times. I think he was easing her on and off the bridle, it was very interesting and brilliant riding I thought though maybe this took a lot out of her in the end. She was sitting in 4th coming round the final bend but instead of going with the leaders like she did in pretty much every other race for the club, this time she fell back alarmingly and maybe her exertions last week had caught up with her. Gordon reported he was happy with her anyway and she has a few days out in the field now to help freshen her up for whatever race she is in next.

Shirleys Goldwell had her first run for a while in a 2 mile something flat race in the last at Limerick. Lisa O'Neill had the ride and worked her into a good position on the first lap but half way round the 2nd lap she was struggling to stay with them and was soon dropping back through the field to finish 15/18. Lisa reported after that Shirley was struggling with her breathing again even though she had a tongue tie this time. She was fine after and we'll see what happens with her next.

There was more frustration from members on the team app. It was addressed by Dean in an email that looked like it had been copied and pasted from the last reprimand but with a few more things added for this one. It was the usual swearing, people saying the horses weren't good enough, losing money on the horses and asking for tickets beyond the 2pm cut off. He did say we could email them questions instead of posting them on the public forum so I will ask my recent questions about Fairy Flute and Smiling Eliza that way.