Trainer Rose Dobbin hopes to see end of 'maddening' virus-hit season at Perth

Rose Dobbin, whose Northumberland yard has been hit by a virus for most of the jumps season, has described the situation as maddening but hopes to have her first runners since February at Perth next week.

Dobbin, who began training in 2009, enjoyed her best campaign last term and had hoped for another fruitful spell, but has suffered "one problem after another".

At the turn of the year the trainer took the decision to ease off her runners, who were then struck by another virus, which has resulted in an additional quiet spell for the stable, but that could come to an end at Perth's three-day meeting next week as Dobbin intends to run some of her string if ground conditions are suitable.

She said on Tuesday: "In our first couple of years at Hazelrigg we encountered some teething problems, but the last few have been pretty trouble-free especially last season when we had 25 winners.

"Unfortunately this season we've had one problem after another. The horses had an unidentifiable virus, so we gave them a quiet few weeks after running poorly during the Christmas period.

"A different bug then swept through the yard, with nearly all the horses coughing. We think their immune systems were damaged by the earlier virus, which made them much more susceptible to the subsequent bug than they normally would have been."

Dobbin, whose husband Tony won the Grand National on Lord Gyllene in 1997, enjoyed her most recent winner when Attention Please struck at Musselburgh on December 10.

She added: "It's pretty maddening when we were expecting to be back in business by now, but there's very little you can do, except give the horses some treatment and plenty of time.

"The weirdly dry and warm winter weather didn't help, it makes the perfect breeding conditions for bugs. We disinfected everything as normal, are still on our lovely steamed Oxfordshire hay, and still getting them out in the paddocks, but for some reason they just haven't been as healthy as they should be."

Dobbin, who had spells working for Nicky Henderson and James Fanshawe, and enjoyed a memorable week in February 2016 when winning a Grade 2 hurdle with Jonniesofa and landing the Eider with Rocking Blues, is not expecting miracles at Perth but is looking forward to a positive time next winter.

"A lot of them have already been roughed off for the summer, but we're keeping a dozen or so going and hopefully might have a few runners at the end of the current season," she added.

"We might keep some going for summer jumping and know we have a lot of nice horses here, who have at least had a very quiet season, so if they come back healthy next term we should bounce back."

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