Mr Gent
Good morning from Newmarket. We have been greeted with a warm and sunny day, and it seems that we may be set for another spell of hot and dry weather. We are busy today, with four runners across three meetings, though we go in hope rather than confidence!
In the 2.00 at Kempton I will saddle Roca Magica in a six-furlong 0-65 nursery. Roca is a sweet little filly, but hard to work out. We have run her over five furlongs, and she has looked in need of a step up, and we have run her over six furlongs, and she has looked in need of a drop! It might even be that she wants a step up to seven at some point, though today we settle on six-furlongs again. She has yet to trouble the judge, though she has never disgraced herself either. A mark of 54 is probably only fair at best, and we try her on the AW and around a bend for the first time, in a bid to find that little bit of improvement that is required. We have been dealt a poor draw in stall 10, but the instructions to David Probert will be to drop her in from the wide draw and try to get her to finish her race off well. We will see what happens and hopefully learn a little.
In the 4.10 at Brighton, I run the disappointing Mr Gent in a seven-furlong median auction maiden. Although we are second top rated, Mr Gent has been regressing of late, and is beginning to look extremely harshly handicapped. He returned from a short break at Redcar last time, and ran well below his rating, but we hope he will come on for the effort. Brighton might not be ideal for him, but at the same time it might spark him into action – I just don’t know. On his best form he can certainly be competitive, and we hope for the best. Franny Norton rides.
We venture to Yarmouth this evening for a pair of runners. In the 5.50, the Sir Percy filly Navajo Squaw has her first taste of racecourse action in almost three months in the maiden handicap over just shy of a mile and a half. She showed a modicum of promise at this track on her second start last season, and steps up significantly in trip in a bid to bounce back from a couple of disappointing runs earlier this year. There is certainly hope on pedigree, as she is out of an Authorized mare that won over middle distances, and there are other horses close up in the pedigree that stayed well, whilst we know Sir Percy is a good stamina influence too. She is clearly a big outsider, but I am hoping to see a bit of improvement nonetheless. David Egan is in the saddle.
Our final runner is Arnarson in the 7.20. He was a good campaigner on the all-weather last winter, but remains winless on the turf, albeit from just five starts. His turf mark is lower than his AW rating and therefore quite appealing, but he hasn’t looked like exploiting it of late. However, when this race re-opened, we thought it looked a good opportunity, on decent ground, to give him one more chance on turf to see if he may yet build a career for himself on the green stuff. Dan Muscutt rides.
All in all, a day in which we can’t be too confident, but as ever in this game, I hope we will learn plenty for the future and see a decent performance or two along the way!
All the best,
Ed.