Weekend Runners
Ziggy was an intended runner in a Listed event at Newmarket on Friday but unfortunately due to the monsoon-like conditions East Anglia has faced overnight, we decided it would be too soft for him to take his chance. Plans for the rest of the season are up in the air, so stay tuned to the blog for more information.
We’ve no Saturday runners but we do send our star stayer Divine Comedy over to Ireland for the very valuable Irish Cesarewitch (16:25). She travels on Friday morning and she’s doing really well at the moment. They’ve had a bit of rain at the Curragh and that’s definitely going to suit her. There’s more to come too, so you’d hope good-to-soft is the quickest it would be. I think the track will really suit her too, as it’s a very fair, galloping track that I hope will bring out the best in her.
As one would expect, the race is extremely competitive. Joseph O’Brien’s Nurburgring and A Piece Of Heaven are at the head of the betting, and there’s also Gavin Cromwell’s Sixandahalf who is well-fancied, but we’ve got Richard Kingscote booked to ride our girl and we’re looking forward to taking our chance.
Back on home soil on Sunday Trapper John goes to Epsom on for the (14:55). He’s bred to appreciate plenty further than this in time, but we’re keen to get him out and experiencing racing as much as anything. He’s pretty backward, and his future is likely to lie over further, but we’ll travel him down to get more racing under his belt.
Docklands sets off to Australia
Our big horse Docklands has spent the last two weeks in quarantine and on Thursday he started the long journey down to Australia ahead of the Cox Plate on October 26th. He’s been in really good order with Sea King who’s joining him on the trip. The whole team is really excited about him going Down Under and I look forward to joining him a little nearer the race. We’ve got top Victorian jockey Blake Shinn booked to ride too, which is a great coup as his experience will be so valuable around Moonee Valley in a race of that nature. We’ve also got Blake committed to ride him if he makes it to Hong Kong afterwards, so we’re naturally delighted about that too, and fingers crossed he can get there after Oz!
Time For Sandals out for the season
It was slightly disappointing that we weren’t able to run Time For Sandals up to Ayr at the weekend just gone for the Group 3 Firth of Clyde. She picked up a small, but not serious, injury, and while it’s nothing for us to be overly worried about, and it’s not something that ought to affect next year, that’ll be her done for the season now. She’s one who’s going to keep us warm over the winter for sure and all being well she’ll be aimed at one of the 1,000 Guineas trials in the spring. Hopefully she can progress next season as much as I expect her to.
Have a great weekend,
Harry