Al Nafoorah
It is an overcast morning here in Newmarket and therefore it is cooler than it has been in recent times. We should get some rain tomorrow afternoon but they were watering on The Rowley Mile this morning given the recent dry spell we have had. I worked a handful of horses on the Al Bahathri this morning as we head towards Doncaster’s St Leger meeting next week and I was pleased with how the horses are coming along.
We did not have much luck yesterday as Sagely was in the process of running a good race in The Prix Liancourt at Chantilly when she was hampered on the rail and lost all chance of being involved in the finish. She definitely has the ability to gain some Black Type and whilst it was frustrating it was good to see that she deserves her place at Listed level. Alligator was second at Chelmsford in the 6:10 one mile Nursery, he stayed the trip well but hung to his left in the closing stages and that was possibly the difference between winning and coming second.
Sagaciously runs at Fontainebleau in the 15:00 BST Listed Fillies contest over ten furlongs. She is top rated and there appears to be a lot of pace in the race with six of the eleven runners heading over from these shores so we hope she can go close. They do appear to have applied a lot of water to the track and I hope that the forecast 30oc means that the ground will dry out come race time. Al Nafoorah ran in a warm fillies race at Newmarket and was not disgraced on debut, we have given her time to strengthen up and her pedigree suggests that she will stay the mile. This does not look the strongest race that has been run at Haydock but she will have to improve on her debut effort to be competitive. Michael’s Mount runs in the last at Haydock and we hope the one mile six furlong trip will bring about some improvement, he would ideally like some cut in the ground and the forecast rain has not arrived at Haydock which is a slight concern but he ran well on good ground last time.
Ode To Paris makes his debut at Kempton Park in the 18:30 this evening and he is very much a horse for the future, I hope he can show us some promise to build on. Alfahad ran very well on seasonal debut in a Nottingham Maiden that has worked out very well, he was too keen that day and so we have dropped him to a mile. I hope he can run well in the 16:35 at Newcastle but it is three months since he was last seen on the racecourse.