TRAINER TALK: FRANCESCA NIMMO & CHARLIE POSTE

Training partnership Fran and Charlie Poste (Fran trains under her maiden name of Nimmo but the couple married in summer 2019) are firmly established as one of the leading yards when it comes to scoring with – and selling on to race under rules – young horses, having had 14 winning four-year-olds alone in the past three seasons. Two of their success stories, Garry Clermont and Switch Hitter, have made six-figure sums at the sales and their youngsters don’t even have to win between the flags to make an impact in the professional game – witness the progress of the likes of Courtandbould (second in the Grade 2 Persian War Hurdle this month) and Third Time Lucki (fourth in the Grade 1 Champion Bumper at Cheltenham and a winner on his recent hurdles debut). I popped in to their Ettington yard in the lead-up to the new pointing season to cast my eye over their potential future stars and find out how their business has been affected by Covid-19 and lockdown.