We kick off Friday’s runners with Havana Gila at Newbury (14:05). We’re on a slight retrieval mission with her here, as while she ran fine in a very competitive Listed race at Newmarket after her first win, she was probably somewhat out of her depth. The five-furlong trip was too sharp for her next time in what looked a smart conditions race, so the drop into nursery company should be better suiting. We’re also back to six furlongs, which I think should allow her to travel into the race a bit better. We’ve not got the best draw, out on the wing, so she’ll need a bit of luck to tow her into the race.
Later on the Newbury card we run General Assembly (16:20), a horse we’ve spoken about a good bit on the blog so far this year. It was a blessing in disguise that he didn’t get into the Shergar Cup race last weekend, as the horse we thought to be the biggest danger was a comfortable winner in the end. His last run came at Chester, which was just not his cup of tea at all, so I’m excited to get him onto a more conventional track on Friday. He’s also stepping up to seven furlongs, which I think will be much more up his street than six. The form of that Chester race has worked out well and I’m looking forward to learning more about him come the race.
Finally on Friday we have a nice two-year-old in the shape of Kisskodi at Newmarket (17:15). He’s been training well since his debut at Salisbury and we’re going to hope he improves from that run, like many of ours do from first to second start. There are a couple in there with more experience than him, but if we could just get a lead, I think he should be quite competitive, unless, of course, one of the unraced horses turns out to be different class altogether.
York Ebor Festival team update
It was great to have the Grosvenor Sport team down to Highfield Stables earlier this week to see the team, and those we’re sending to York for the Ebor Festival next week. The plan is to run seven horses across the week, headlined by Docklands, our stable star, in the Juddmonte International on the Wednesday. Stay tuned for more on him and the rest of the team in due course!
Chat soon,
Harry