Qeyaadah
We had a fantastic time at the Jockey Club Rooms last night for the pre Ascot dinner and the Mongolian Saturday connections gave the evening some colour as they were in traditional Mongolian dress. It started off very cool this morning and overcast but the sun broke through and it has turned into a beautiful day once more. The forecast keeps changing for Ascot and there might not be too much rain before the Royal meeting begins. The horses went up Side Hill and Warren Hill this morning and they all remain in good heart. It has been a slow start to the month as we ran a lot of horses in May and we have between five and eight horses running next week in Berkshire, we will gradually be bringing out some more two year olds as the month progresses.
Chestnut Storm was our only runner yesterday and was third up at Beverley, having stumbled out of the stalls she was held up in last and ran on up the straight, just failing to get up for second. We were convinced she was better than she showed at Bath and I am sure there is a small handicap in her over one and a half miles or even slightly further.
Inniscastle Lad bids for a four timer up at Haydock at 9:15 this evening. He has been remarkably progressive since being upped to ten furlongs and seems to keep finding more when required. I hope he still has something in hand but it could be he will need twelve furlongs to find further improvement. Silvestre De Sousa is banned currently so William Buick takes over the ride. Jolievitesse ran quite well in a warm race at York and the early money would suggest he could be our biggest danger.
After dominating the Test Series so far, England have a fight on their hands in the third Test at Lord’s. Cook played well for his eighty five and Bairstow has played some aggressive shots to get to 76 not out after tea as he builds a partnership with Ali but everyone else has failed. If we can get another hundred on the board we should be in a strong position given how the Sri Lankan batting has failed in the series so far.