Al Hamd
A glorious day here in Newmarket and the ground will be drying out on the Rowley Mile. I worked some horses on the Limekilns this morning and I was pleased with how they went, it was beautiful ground. The weekend runners blew the cobwebs away and we have five nice horses running on Saturday, I will talk about them come the weekend.
We have three runners this evening at Newmarket starting with Global Revival in the 6f Novice race. He is a horse who I think will improve with racing and I will be happy if he can show us some promise for the future this evening. Gabrielle runs in the seven furlong maiden later on at 7:20 and she showed us a lot more promise at Newmarket last time than on her debut. The favourite has had nine runs but she sets a very high standard and she will be extremely difficult to beat. The drying ground is also an unknown so I hope she can show us some promise like last time but it could well be too competitive for her tonight. Al Hamd runs in the 8:25 at Newmarket and he would have a small each way chance. He won his maiden well before throwing away his chance at Beverley last time and I hope he can get back on track by putting in a good run this evening in what looks a competitive race with many unexposed types in the field.
I was very impressed with the performance of So Mi Dar in the Musidora yesterday and you have to think that the Oaks could be a stronger race than the Derby this year. Both Minding and So Mi Dar have a fantastic turn of foot and it will be a fascinating Oaks if they both turn up on the Friday. Magical Memory also produced a devastating turn of foot in the Duke of York but I would not write Twilight Son off just yet as he was on the slowest part of the track and he is bound to improve significantly for his seasonal debut. There were many more taking performances on the card and we have another fantastic day’s action in store today with the highlight being the Dante.
Windsor Horse show is putting on a spectacular display that features 900 horses in a ninety minute show to celebrate the Queen’s 90th birthday and Mrs D and myself are going tonight as guests of Sir Peter Vela who has a share in Rockery. It should be a very enjoyable evening and the team that organised the Diamond Jubilee Pageant have done the choreography so there will be a lot of LED effects and theatrical lighting and it will be quite a show I am sure.