Horse racing is a fantastic game, but there’s no getting away from the fact that last Saturday was a pretty horrible day for all of us at Highfield Stables. We were so looking forward to running Crystal Delight in the Ebor, having built up to the race all season, and I and the team were just devastated to lose him.
He was a real character around the yard, very talented on the racecourse and is one that we’ll really struggle to replace. Time is a wonderful healer, however, and we will remember him very fondly as we dust ourselves down and look to move on.
Notwithstanding the difficult Saturday, we were delighted with lots of our York runners, and it’s all systems go to Australia with Docklands. He ran really quite well in the Juddmonte, especially considering how special City Of Troy was in winning the race. He’s now in the process of doing all the necessary medical checks before he heads into quarantine on 11 September.
Once he’s back from that, he’ll enter quarantine and then just train away until he flies out to Oz on 25 September, with the Cox Plate itself taking place on 26 October. We were thrilled to receive an invitation to the Hong Kong International Races in December too, so we’ll see how that fits into plans once we’re done in Australia.
Time For Sandals was another who ran a blinder at York when second in the Lowther. We’d given her a stiff enough task there and she delighted us with how she performed on the day. The plan is to run her just once more this year, and I’m leaning heavily towards the Group Three Firth of Clyde at Ayr in mid-to-late September. If it came up very soft there, we’d think about the Cheveley Park instead, but I’d really like to head up to Scotland with her, and then put her away for the winter. We’ll train her as a Classic filly next year and so something like the Fred Darling will be the plan come the spring.
We probably didn’t make enough use of Divine Comedy’s stamina at York last week, and now we’ll aim her at the extremely valuable Irish Cesarewitch. It’s worth €600k, and while we might take in Doncaster Cup along the way, we have our eyes firmly fixed on the Curragh in mid-to-late September as it’s a track I think will really suit her.
Weekend Preview
Sir Les Patterson heads to Sandown on Saturday (13:50) and he’s done really well since his gelding operation. He was always a fairly laidback colt, but he’s just done well for the gelding, and we’re pleased with him. We always thought of him as one with plenty of ability, and possibly he just wasn’t quite ready for the races we’d tried him in the last-twice. I’d like to think his mark is quite workable and although he’s the outsider of the lot in the betting, I think he can outrun his odds with Billy Loughnane in the plate.
Later in the day Cooramook makes her debut at Sandown (16:10). Typically, ours tend to come on a lot for their first run, but she’s done everything we’ve asked of her at home so far, and we like her. She’s a chilled character mentally and is probably bred to be a bit quicker than the seven furlongs here, but we’re going to hope she finds her feet and has a good experience on the track. I was a little surprised by the lack of runners in the race given the prize money on offer, so let’s hope she can run into the places.
Finally, we’ve got Saachi over at Chelmsford (17:40) who’s back on the all-weather. He’s been training well and, to be honest, has only been a non-runner recently while we search for his preferred slightly slower ground. It’s continued to be very dry so we thought the all-weather, which he trains well on at home, should be fine for him. I hope he’ll be competitive with Kaiya Fraser on board.
Have a good weekend,
Harry