Big week in progress!

A busy week of runners got underway on Monday when Golden Maverick nearly handed out a beating to his rivals at Ayr, but for hitting the final hurdle when clear of the field! He opened up a comfortable advantage in the home straight and appeared to be cruising home approaching the final flight - touching 1.01 in-running on the exchange - before landing awkwardly, losing all momentum - and three places - close home in a truly gut-wrenching way!

Nonetheless, this effort was much more like it from Mav, who travelled much better in the first-time visor and improved for his two previous runs this season, so it's onwards and upwards for this dual hurdles winner.

Next up is fellow RaceShare jumper, Marlacoo, who heads to Sandown on Friday afternoon. He was last seen falling early on at Wetherby on Boxing Day, when hopes were high he would run a big race with his recent form receiving significant boosts. He lines up in a 2m 4f novices' handicap hurdle with 11 opponents and we are hopeful he can put that blip behind him for his RaceShare100 owners.

Two and a half hours later, Lir Speciale will be out again quickly following his encouraging comeback run at Wolverhampton earlier this month, this time at Southwell. Like Golden Maverick, he also wore a visor for the first time on that occasion, but he didn't get the rub of the green during the race, although he stayed on well in the straight for fifth place. We were happy with that run as we knew he'd improve for his first run in 4 months, so all systems go for Southwell on Friday evening.

Gibbs Island is a possible runner at Sedgefield on Sunday, which would round-off a quartet of RaceShare runners covering hundreds of miles! He would be making his hurdles debut and we cannot wait to see how he gets on in this new sphere. If he doesn't run on Sunday, he is sure to be running very soon with other entries coming up.