Oceanus
I was up very early this morning to catch my flight to Deauville and I have been watching the two year olds breezing. There are some nice individuals for sale and I hope to be able to be bidding on one or two once the sale starts. It is a breezy and overcast morning in Newmarket I am told and the ground will continue to be on the quick side at the Rowley Mile later on. The horses had a relatively easy morning as we worked some of them yesterday and I am told that everything went smoothly.
We had three runners yesterday, Global Revival made his debut in the six furlong Novice race at Newmarket. He will have learnt a lot from the run and he stayed on a little towards the end of the race which was encouraging for the future. Gabrielle ran in the seven furlong maiden and the first two home look useful prospects, she faded towards the end of the race and I think the ground may have been slightly too quick for her. Al Hamd was disappointing but Dane felt he may have knocked himself and so he looked after him in the latter stages of the race.
There are five runners at three meetings today and we have a small chance in each race but they all look to be competitive affairs. Al Nafoorah is a nice filly by Bated Breath out of a Motivator mare. She has shown me encouragement at home but there are well touted newcomers in the race as well as horses with solid form that have already run. I will be pleased if she runs a promising race. Gloryette runs in the one mile and a half fillies’ maiden later in the card and I hope she can build on her debut at Sandown. It is a small field but both Daphne and Taffeta Lady have shown a good deal of promise and there are other nice types in the race. It should be an informative contest and I hope she takes a step forward.
Oceanus runs in the second division of the six furlong Maiden at Newbury. None of the horses in the race have run before so it is very much an unknown but he is a horse we like. The ground will be soft and so conditions will be an unknown also, John Gosden runs the first Frankel two year old to be seen on a racecourse and there are an abundance of well- bred types in there. Manjaam runs in the eleven furlong handicap later on and he is also unproven in soft ground. We will see how soft it is before deciding whether he will definitely run but he is a progressive horse who has improved for each run this year and he has Ryan Moore onboard. Gunnery looked promising when he won at Haydock and there are numerous other last time out winners in the race. Oasis Fantasy goes to York for the Jorvik Stakes and the blinkers he wore at Newmarket are retained. He came out of his last race well and has been fresh at home so I hope he can run a big race again. We are much more exposed than the favourite Barsanti who could well be a Group horse but he has done his winning on the all-weather so far.
The Dante was a very interesting race yesterday and Wings of Desire showed a good attitude to get on top close to the line. Deauville ran a very good race in second but you would expect the winner to improve more than him going forward. There were other interesting horses for the future in behind and Foundation stepped up on his comeback run at Newmarket. There is some good racing again today at York and it will be interesting to see how Boater gets on in the Listed two year old Fillies’ race as she was very impressive on debut at Kempton.