Trip To Paris at Tokyo this morning.
Cold and autumnal at Heathrow this morning as Mrs Dunlop and I prepared to board our flight to Tokyo.
It has been a difficult week following the devastating news last weekend, but our memories of Red Cadeaux will be cherished forever. Thank you to everyone who has offered messages of condolence and support – we appreciate these greatly and they help to ease the burden during dark times.
There have been some wonderful tributes paid to our superstar, none more so than the following video compliation by Sharon Chapman, which is well worth a watch: https://vimeo.com/146577635
Red Cadeaux is irreplaceable, but we are fortunate enough to have another horse capable of competing on the international stage and Trip To Paris continues on his global adventure in the Japan Cup on Sunday. He was drawn in barrier two this morning, with only favourite Lovely Day on his inside, which pleased us and jockey Tommy Berry.
This will be TTP’s eleventh start of the year, but he came out of the Melbourne Cup in good form and we know from his Caulfield exploits that he is capable of mixing it with the best over a mile and a half on quick ground. The La Grange Partnership were excited by the opportunity to enjoy another foreign escapade and this doesn’t look a vintage renewal of the race on paper. More thoughts on that on Saturday.
Robin, alongside the connections of the other three international runners, spoke to the press this morning and you can find their thoughts here: http://japanracing.jp/_news2015/151126-04.html
Back at home, it has been a largely quiet week on the runners front. Red Verdon, in the colours of Ronnie Arculli, almost pulled off the most poignant of victories at Wolverhampton on Saturday evening, going down by a nose on debut. He looks more than capable of winning a maiden and is a fine prospect for next year.
Arethusa finished third earlier that afternoon and she heads to the sales next week. She will make a fine broodmare but could race on as well, so we expect her to attract lots of attention from prospective buyers.
I’m not sure I’ve seen a maiden field go off as quick as they did at Lingfield yesterday and it was no surprise they broke the course record. The winner looks very smart indeed but our Alfahad, a son of New Approach, finished a respectable fifth on debut and is a lovely middle-distance sort for next summer.
We saddle one this afternoon at Chelmsford with Timia making her second start in the seven furlong fillies’ maiden. She travelled beautifully on debut at Lingfield and just go tired in the last 100 yards, but while she seems to have improved for that run, this looks a pretty decent maiden on paper. She could post a better form figure here and finish fifth again.
Finally, the standoff between racing and bookmakers over off-shore contributions, sponsorship and ABP status has really racketed up a notch this week and a mutually agreeable solution looks a long way off. I feel it is important for racing that we continue to stand strong on the issue and not roll over lightly, as we might have done in the past. The next few weeks will be particularly interesting.
Back Saturday.
Ed.