Triple Genius
Good morning from Newmarket. We are quiet today with just a single runner at Nottingham, as Triple Genius takes his chance in the two-mile 0-65 handicap at 5.10.
Triple Genius is a rather large son of Mastercraftsman, whose dam Three Moons who was trained by my brother Harry and was a fairly smart performer. As a two-year-old she was short-headed by Midday at Newmarket, and she later won a Folkestone maiden and finished second in the Listed Pretty Polly Stakes at the Guineas meeting.
Given his size it was fairly inevitable that Triple Genius would take time to come to hand. He was unraced at two before making his debut in a mile and a quarter Wetherby maiden in May of this year. There was a bit of promise in that display, although he has probably taken backward steps on his next two starts.
However, he has been allotted an opening handicap mark of 53 as a result, so he is not starting at a particularly high level. The complication we have had is the weather as he is the sort of horse I don’t want to risk on really fast ground at this stage. We would have ideally liked to start in a mile and three-quarter handicap on good to soft ground, but opportunities like that are thin on the ground and hard to come by! So as a result we end up in a competitive two-mile handicap on ground that was heavy, but has now dried back to soft.
It is not necessarily ideal to start a horse in handicap company over such a long trip and in such conditions, but our hand has been forced. It is difficult to predict how he will get on, but hopefully he will enjoy the experience and give us some encouragement that he can develop into a fun handicapper at the appropriate level. Josephine Gordon will take the ride.
All the best,
Ed.