Blushes
Mrs D, the family and myself are all heading back from Paris today after watching Red Verdon run another fine race at Saint Cloud in The Grand Prix de Paris where he was second. As they headed towards the final two hundred metres I thought he was coming to win the race but he just flattened out slightly and the winner Mount Ormel found plenty for pressure on the rail. He had to make up a lot of ground on the outside and he has once more done us proud, coming a long way since Doncaster at the end of April. I have heard that he has travelled back well and has had a good pick of grass and had a roll. He will now have a break before more than likely taking in the Great Voltigeur and then the St Leger.
We had a winner and a second at Leicester yesterday and it was satisfying to have our first Nursery winner of the campaign from our first runner in one. Global Revival has had a gelding operation since he was last seen and he found plenty for pressure when winning on Silvestre’s first ride back from his suspension. On The Bill was beaten by just a neck in the 1m handicap and he got unbalanced before finding his stride when he met the rising ground, two more strides and he would have won.
Three horses are running today at Newbury and Nottingham. Sparkle runs in the Newbury 6f Maiden Fillies’ at 2:30 and she is a daughter of Oasis Dream that I like. As with a lot of my debutants she will learn a lot from the experience and there look to be some well related types in the field. Tibr runs in the 6f Listed race later on at 3:40, he has been disappointing the last twice after showing a lot of promise when winning on debut. He is better than he showed on his last start when the pace bias counted against him but he will have to step up on what he has shown to be involved here. Blushes is our final runner of the day in the 5:35 at Nottingham, it does not look to be the strongest race on paper and Harry Burns takes seven pounds off of her. The form of her Hamilton race is working out well and whilst the drying ground would be a slight concern I hope she can run with credit.
Phil Mickelson has opened up a gap in The Open and conditions have meant that a lot of players are under par with Big Phil into double figures. Anything can happen over the weekend but when a player of his calibre opens up a lead they are hard to peg back, especially when he possesses such the fantastic short game that is needed to master Links Golf.