Good morning from Newmarket. We were greeted with beautiful sunshine this morning, and we are getting set for our busiest day of the year so far. We have three runners at Leicester and another representative at Wolverhampton this evening.
We kick off with Foad in the 2.00 at Leicester, and he will be our first two-year-old runner of the year. A son of Kodiac out of a sprinting mare, who has already produced a two-year-old winner, he has come forward nicely of late and is ready to get going now. It looks a typically competitive heat with the Brocklesby third Zulu Zander setting a strong standard, and plenty of interesting newcomers on paper. Getting away from the gates cleanly against one with experience and evident ability is obviously going to be vital, and it will be an interesting barometer for our two-year-olds as a whole to see how he gets on. P J McDonald rides.
Next up, in the mile and a half handicap at 3.40, it is the turn of Dagueneau who makes his seasonal reappearance. You will be familiar with the colours, as he is owned by Andrew Gemmell, whose Paisley Park has shone throughout the latest NH season. One of our star performers last season, Dagueneau won twice and finished second on no less than four occasions.
He rocketed up the weights as a result of course, but as a scopey son of Champs Elysees, we hope that the best is yet to come. Ideally suited by a mile and three-quarters to two miles, today’s race is unlikely to provide a stiff enough test for him, plus the ground is maybe a touch faster than ideal, but the race should serve as a good starting point for him as we work towards other targets.
Our final Leicester runner is an interesting three-year-old newcomer named San Sebastian. A heavy-topped son of Iffraaj, he is out of the mile and a quarter winner Invincible Cara, who is herself a member of that excellent family I know so well featuring our very own Prince Gagarin and my father’s classy performers Elusive Pimpernel and Palavicini. So he is bred to be a useful sort, and we have been pleased with how he has progressed in recent months. As an unraced three-year-old we can expect him to be a little green this afternoon and he will unquestionably improve for the run from a fitness-perspective, but there is an engine there so I hope to see some evidence of that. Ben Curtis rides both Dagueneau and San Sebastian.
Our final runner of the day is Arctic Spirit, who tries her luck in the seven-furlong 0-70 fillies’ handicap at 6.30 at Wolverhampton. A bonny daughter of Intello, she was a little unlucky not to get her head in front last year, finishing in the places on four of her six starts.
She hasn’t grown an awful lot over the winter, but seems to be going well in her work, so I hope that she has trained on adequately at least. The handicapper has her on a rating of 70, which looks to be a fair rather than lenient assessment, so we have secured the services of promising claimer Cieren Fallon to take seven pounds off. Hopefully that should bring her into contention, though we are drawn a little wider than ideal (albeit a couple of non-runners have helped in that department) and Charlie Fellowes' well-bred filly Isango looks difficult to beat. A competitive race, but I hope she can be involved at the business end.
A busy day all told, with four lovely horses going to the races. It will be fascinating to see how Foad gets on, Dagueneau ought to come on plenty for the run, whilst San Sebastian and Arctic Spirit are a couple of good types that can hopefully give us a lot of fun this year. Fingers crossed we see come encouragement.
All the best,
Ed.