Merry Christmas!

Ballymore Stables wishes all of our supporters the very best for Christmas and the New Year.

And hopefully we will get into the festive spirit with a winner or two.

At the Christmas Eve meeting at Sale we have a couple of runners – Sunset Magic and Our Valdivia lining up in consecutive races towards the end of the day.

Taking her place in the 1615m Showcase event, Sunset Magic has drawn the inside gate for Daniel Moor and whilst the mile is still short of her best distances she did perform quite well first up.

Beaten less than three lengths over 1400m on that occasion, Sunset Magic has derived benefit from the run and is in with an each-way chance.

Our Valdivia, who contests the following race, has also drawn barrier one and gets into the field as emergency.

“She is drawn to run a good race,” said Anthony Feroce, noting that the four-year-old has been freshened for a drop back in distance.

The weekend is a fairly quiet one for us but we head to Warrnambool on Sunday with Garud (pictured) who is due to contest the Woodford Cup over 1700m.

Also drawn barrier one, Garud will be ridden for Ryan Maloney and he looks well placed second up rising in distance.

Catching the eye with a strong finishing third when resuming over 1400m at Flemington a couple of weeks ago, the seven-year-old boasts a very good second up record.

“From the good gate and up to the 1700m he is going to prove hard to beat,” Feroce said.