Good afternoon from Newmarket! We have two runners to keep us occupied today, namely Dagueneau at Nottingham and Global Freedom at Wolverhampton.
Let us start by discussing Global Freedom, who runs at 3.25 in a mile and a half 0-60 handicap, breaking from gate five under P J McDonald. A son of Maxios from a Niarchos family, he made his racecourse debut in November at Lingfield, and displayed a little promise but made a noise so had his breathing tinkered with. Subsequently he has run twice more, including when staying on at this track last time over a mile, to earn a mark of 55.
We hope that this rating does not overestimate his ability, but with a horse like him who has a history of breathing issues, the rating is academic until we can get him racing more evenly. Last time out he took a major step in the right direction in that regard, but he will need to do so again to benefit from this longer trip. His pedigree indicates that he can improve for a step up in distance, and I would like to think he has the raw ability to be very competitive, so let’s just hope that PJ can get him relaxed and settled. If that happens, I expect him to be there or thereabouts at the finish – but it is a fairly big if!
Moving onto the 4.55 at Nottingham, Dagueneau is on a retrieval mission after disappointing badly at Doncaster three and a half weeks ago. He was a dual winner last season, including at this track, and we thought we were set fair for an exciting four-year-old campaign with the son of Champs Elysees after a good comeback at Leicester over an inadequate trip.
However, he put in a totally listless display last time, and there was no obvious excuse. We wondered about the ground, the track, the distance and so on, but could not really put our finger on anything. It is fair to say that a few of our horses were running below par around that time, so it could just be that he was suffering as a result of that. One positive to come out of the race was that Dagueneau has now been dropped to a rating of 75, and will race below 0-80 company for the first time in almost 12 months. Inevitably there are still dangers, such as the in-form Rod Millman’s Master Grey and the prolific Bailarico, but hopefully these calmer waters will allow Dagueneau to be competitive.
So we head to the races with two little each way chances, but both horses have questions to answer of a sort. Hopefully we will get some positive answers, and let us hope for some luck.
All the best,
Ed.