It is a short blog today as I am out in Deauville looking at Yearlings. There are a lot of nice ones but I expect the market to be strong once again when the sale starts this evening. HQ has had unexpected rain overnight and the groud at Newmarket is a lot softer than expected.
We have two runners today, Amazing Red runs in the 1m4f handicap at 4:30 and Senior Whim goes to post in the Hacks class where a maximum field of 18 are vying for bragging rights. Victoria Hayter our Head Girl has done an excellent job in making him look very smart along with Christine Dawon and Victoria’s Mother, so we hope we can be competitive. Godolphin have managed to rustle up multiple entrants however and it will be interesting to see if there is a Dubawi on show. It promises to be a fun event and it is great to see the class back after a hiatus. Senior Whim last ran in April 2008 at Sandown but he has done a valuable job for us and has twice ponied Fabulous Red to the start this season, so he should behave well and will be used to seeing racegoers.
Amazing Red is six pounds wrong at the weights but given two of the opposition are coming back after long lay-offs and the others failed to run to their best last time, we felt we would take our chance given he won over course and distance last time and is in form. It is a valuable prize and we would obviously love the conditions of the race to allow him to run off of his correct mark but he has good claims and hopefully he is an improving horse. If the ground is particularly nasty I will not run him but we shall watch the first race and see how the course is riding.