PNicholls

When we arrived at Kempton on Saturday, I turned round to Dan and said: "We may as well load the lorry back up and go straight home."

Because the ground was as soft as I have seen it at Kempton in a long, long, while and I very nearly pulled all my horses out.

Horses like Toubab, American Trilogy and Fistral Beach hated it - Fistral wouldn't stay 3m in that ground in an aeroplane - but there were some crumbs of comfort.

I thought Empire Levant ran a smashing race, and he now goes to Aintree, as does Toubab. They are just two of my horses that I can't wait to get on better ground.

But obviously the highlight of the day was Zarkandar.

As I said in Friday's column, he was very difficult when we first got him but the team here at Ditcheat have done a great job of turning him around, and his win yesterday was a testament to their hard work.

The win surprised me. Although he goes really nicely at home now, I thought he would need more time and experience.

But he was very impressive - the time was very decent in the ground, too - and he now goes straight for the Triumph. We left plenty to work on going to Kempton and better ground will suit him, too.

We now look to have a very strong hand in the Triumph. Brampour flew in his work yesterday and is an improving animal, and of course we also have Sam Winner, who beat the current Triumph Hurdle favourite Grandouet by 15 lengths at Cheltenham in November, albeit getting 8lb.

I have said in the past that we also have the Supreme as an option for Sam Winner, but I won't make any decision until I sit down with Mrs Yeoman. It's nice to have two options for him, though.

Elsewhere, I chatted to Graham Roach and the plan is to run Definity in the Centenary Novices' Handicap Chase on the opening day.

We have been given a chance off a mark of 136.

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