Trotting outdoors.
A very warm start to the morning and we are apparently entering heatwave territory all week.
I trust you all had an enjoyable weekend. Mrs D and I had an excellent time at Tudor Hall on Saturday, although things were not so chipper yesterday as the Racing XI suffered their first loss of the year to Chippenham. Oli Bell was captain – say no more…
I was delighted with Zarwaan’s performance at Newcastle as defying ten stone is no mean feat. I thought Paul gave him a super hold-up ride and the handicapper can’t go overboard given the winning margin.
He holds entries in the Bunbury Cup and the International Handicap while the top six furlong contests like the Stewards’ Cup and the Ayr Gold Cup could also come under consideration.
We received a little criticism on social media about our decision to pull the horse out of the Wokingham one week earlier on account of the fast ground but to run him on drying ground at the weekend.
I wanted to stress, in our opinion, the going was very different at Ascot compared to Newcastle. Ascot was firm in places having been baked all week, while Newcastle received rain on Friday having watered extensively the previous weekend.
We appreciate it can be frustrating for racing fans and punters when horses are withdrawn late, but we try our best to warn about such circumstances happening in this space – like we did with Zarwaan – and it is as frustrating for us to travel a horse to a course and find we cannot run because of the ground.
Elsewhere at Newcastle, Oasis Fantasy was always going to struggle from his draw in the Plate as he needs dropping in – there will be other days for him.
One runner at Windsor this evening with Vereri Senes lining up in the mile and a half fillies’ handicap. She is entitled to improve tackling this sort of company and her opening mark is a fair one. She will need a proper test at the trip, so let’s hope we get a decent gallop.
Finally, two performances really stood out at the weekend, with Jack Hobbs magnificent in the Irish Derby and Treve simply superb in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.
For her to beat a horse like Flintshire under his optimum conditions having been coaxed into the race suggested to me she is at least as good as ever, and providing the traditionally wet autumn in Paris materialises, the history-making attempt at a third Arc looks well and truly feasible.
More tomorrow.
Ed