On the Town Canter.
Rain overnight and thick fog this morning, but surprisingly warm and the forecast is relatively dry for the rest of the day.
We took seven to the Al Bahathri first lot and eight second lot. They included Times Up, who will join stable companion Trip To Paris in the Lonsdale Cup next week, and Zarwaan, who is also on course for the Ebor Meeting.
Mrs D and I are Deauville bound this morning and we are, of course, happy to take any orders for Arqana! It’s a little scary that the first yearling sales are upon us already – the Lincoln seems only five minutes ago.
Seven runners today on a hectic Friday. The rain has arrived at Newbury, which is good news for us, and Ejbaar goes back handicapping following his maiden win at Pontefract. That was a poor race, but you can’t blame the handicapper for putting him up 7lb, and he should still be competitive off 77.
Sagaciously has a wide draw to overcome, but the extra furlong should be in her favour and this is the time of year when three-year-olds seem to dominate these open handicaps over a trip. Roger Varian’s Master Of Speed has a similar profile to us and would warrant plenty of respect, but our filly ticks lots of boxes and holds leading claims.
We’re looking for nice, good ground at Newcastle so hopefully they will get some more of the forecast rain this morning. Justice First looks worth another crack at seven furlongs and he pulled clear with a rival who had tumbled down the weights last time. Cheekpieces replace blinkers to help him settle over this longer trip.
We probably made too much use of Field Of Light at Wolverhampton and we’ll look to drop him in over a mile and a quarter. He was on an upward curve prior to his last run and Graham Lee got on well with him at Ripon.
Tartoor’s maiden looks an average one bar the favourite. He’s bred to appreciate middle-distances throughout the bottom half of his pedigree and he shaped nicely in a fair race on debut. He’ll know more today.
At Newmarket, Al Hamd – an Intikhab first foal out of the winning mare Bakoura – makes his debut in what looks an ok median auction, while Hanno is on a retrieval mission dropped back to a mile in the handicap. He’s still fairly treated on his Brighton win.
Back tomorrow from across the Channel. À bientôt!
Ed.