Good morning from Newmarket. There is some terrific racing taking place at various tracks today, and we will be keeping our hand in with two runners apiece at Goodwood and Salisbury.
Our first representative is Amazing Red in the mile and three-quarter 0-105 handicap at 4.20 at Goodwood. Now a six-year-old, the half-brother to Red Cadeaux has resumed in great form this season, producing a couple of encouraging displays on the AW before finishing an excellent second in the Listed Further Flight Stakes.
Admittedly his latest run in the Gr.3 Sagaro Stakes at Ascot was below-par, but that is the third time in a row that he has disappointed over two miles, and there now has to be a strong suspicion that he simply does not stay (he did win over two miles on the AW but they crawled early on and he used his speed rather than stamina to win). So we return to a more favourable setup today, a mile and three-quarters on quick ground, back in handicap company. A similar scenario saw him produce a career best to win a valuable handicap on the July course last June, and hopefully he is primed for another good run. The main stumbling block is simply that we are not very well-handicapped these days on a mark of 102, but we have engaged the talented Cieren Fallon to take seven pounds off in order to reduce that burden.
Clearly the progressive Kings Advice of Mark Johnston’s will be hard to beat, and as this is Amazing Red’s first trip to Goodwood the track is something of an unknown. However, the race has already been decimated by non-runners due to the ground, and hopefully these conditions might favour us more than one or two of our rivals. Granted a decent pace to run at and a good trip around, hopefully Amazing Red can be involved at the business end.
Our second Goodwood representative is Inspirational in the seven-furlong fillies’ maiden at 5.30. This filly has not shown too much in two starts to date over a mile, so we hope that a drop in trip can enable her to show some more promise. She will hopefully be handicapped after today’s run and clearly that is where her future lies. Cieren will also ride this filly.
Moving over to Salisbury, we get the career of the Wootton Bassett three-year-old Annexation underway in the six-furlong maiden at 6.50. A keen-going individual, this is obviously a rather belated debut, and we go to the races with realistic expectations as to what he might achieve. He is likely to appreciate a little further than this in time, but we feel it is important to start him off over this kind of trip as we bid to try and curb his enthusiasm a little.
Our second runner at Salisbury is Homesick Boy in the mile and a half 0-65 at 7.50. This gelded son of the American sire Data Link earned a rating of 66 after three runs as a two-year-old, but has been dropped a further four pounds after two runs this year. Despite the handicapper’s leniency, he has run with a bit of promise on both occasions, notably when third at Beverley on his first go over this trip.
The most significant concern today is the ground, as he has shown an appreciate for a little ease a couple of times, and he is very unlikely to find any of that this evening. If he gets away with the surface, then he ought to go fairly well, as Salisbury promises to suit and this is his sort of level. We have reached for the cheekpieces today, as he just looked to lose concentration during a vital part of the contest on his latest run, and hopefully the new headgear can help unearth that extra little bit of improvement that is required to get his head in front. There are of course several potentially well-handicapped horses in opposition, but hopefully we won’t be too far away. Liam Keniry rides both of our runners at Salibury this evening.
All the best,
Ed.