Khanmurjan working
Another day, another second…! Good morning from Newmarket. Further frustration at Chelmsford last night as Qawamees registered his third second of the season and our seventh in the last fortnight – a score which has been fairly typical this season. However, we will try our luck again today and see how we fare.
We get started this afternoon with Manjaam in the 2.40 at Ascot, a mile and a half 0-95 handicap. This horse has been increasingly disappointing of late, failing to replicate his homework with weak finishing efforts. We have tried two miles recently, with mixed results, in a bid to try and find some extra improvement, but it hasn’t really been forthcoming. He is now down to a reasonably workable mark of 93, and returns to Ascot where he often runs with credit and is a previous winner. This race has cut up enough to encourage us to let him take his chance, and he ought to not be far away. He has been travelling well in his races and just cutting out late on, so today we reach for blinkers to try and remedy that. Charlie Bishop is booked for the ride, and they should have a small each way chance.
Our second runner is Khanmurjan in the 4.00 at Newcastle. He is a son of Scat Daddy out of a Montjeu mare, who showed promise in his first three starts before disappointing with a miserable effort at Beverley. We have forgiven him that on account of the ground, and today he gets his first taste of action on the AW. Several interpretations of his form suggest that a rating of 76 is fair, and the step up to mile is something I have been thinking of for a while with this lad. We are in a valuable and therefore competitive race, but hopefully he should not be far away. Ben Curtis takes the mount.
Also at Newcastle we run Toro Dorado in the 5.10, a six-furlong novice. This son of Toronado has had two starts so far, improving from run one to run two, so I hope to see the pattern continue today. It is still early days for the horse, so we are working out what are his ideal conditions, and it is still early days for the sire too of course. It may well be that this colt will be better served by further in due course, but he needs one more run for a mark, and we thought it would be sensible to see how he fares on a different surface. He has landed in a competitive looking race, but hopefully he will be doing his best work at the end and staying on nicely.
Unfortunately Arnarson has pulled out lame this morning so won’t be running at Kempton, although we are still represented by Global Myth in the 6.45. A Scat Daddy two-year-old, he made his debut over a mile at Goodwood recently, travelling reasonably well but dropping out tamely. We try a furlong shorter and blinkers this evening, in the hope that it leads to some improvement. Gerald Mosse rides.
All the best,
Ed.