Good morning from Newmarket. The third and final day of the Craven meeting beckons, and a busy week in the sales ring at Tattersalls has also concluded.
We have not had much luck so far this week, but a couple of runners today will hopefully improve our fortunes. We get started with Global Gift in the 1.50 at Newmarket, the Alex Scott Maiden, named in honour of my former Boss.
A son of Invincible Spirit out of an unraced New Approach mare, he took a good while to come to hand, but has improved markedly in recent months. He was a promising fourth on his racecourse debut at Chelmsford in late March, although the form has delivered mixed messages in the meantime. A little keen and displaying signs of inexperience that day, he should take a nice step forward this afternoon.
There has been a flood of money for the unraced James Tate trained Far Above, and the likes of John Gosden’s Franz Kafka and the Charles Hills trained Qutob set a strong form standard. Ruffling the feathers of those horses will be difficult - I note that we are priced up as 33/1 outsiders - but I do hope we will see an encouraging display from a horse that will hopefully win races at some point. Gerlad Mosse rides.
Our second runner this afternoon is Global Express, who heads to Ripon for the 5.10, a mile and a half novice for three-year-olds. A son of New Approach, Global Express showed a lot of promise when third on his only outing so far at Salisbury back in October. The race has not worked out particularly well so far, although the seventh Babbo’s Boy went on to run well in a warm Newbury maiden on his next start.
That Michael Bell trained colt is in opposition again today, as is the highly promising Sir Ron Priestley of Mark Johnston’s, who looked potentially smart in two runs last year. So there is a good standard of opposition standing in our way, and the trip is a little bit of an unknown too, as our horse is out of a sprinting mare. That said, he works like a middle distance prospect, is a son of New Approach, and he seems to have done well over the winter. I am hoping to see a good run and hopefully some signs of encouragement with the rest of the season in mind. David Egan takes the mount.
The very best of luck to Dr Johnny Hon, who owns both of our runners today, and let us hope for a productive day of racing.
All the best,
Ed.