Australian rider Chad Schofield.
A little cooler this afternoon but another dry day in store.
Two groups of workers this morning, with first lot venturing to the peat moss gallop on racecourse side, while second headed to the Al Bahathri at the other end of town.
Trevor Milner, part of the Highclere syndicate who own Fieldsman, joined us to watch his charge work alongside Harry Herbert, Ali Begley, Alex Smith and Mark Kershaw.
The three-year-old, who is rated 92 following two victories last year, is engaged at both Doncaster and Newmarket on Saturday and we will make a decision about his starting point in the next day or so.
Mrs Stewart-Brown, co-owner of Times Up, popped in second lot to watch the old boy work. She was joined by Alex Embiricos, who was responsible for Times at her pre-training yard during the winter, and he completed an enthusiastic seven furlongs with all of his old exuberance.
No runners today and a couple of entries for Windsor next Monday, with Imvula engaged in the 1m median auction maiden and Oasis Fantasy given the option of the extended 1m3f 0-85 handicap.
All three of yesterday’s runners have come out of their excursions in good order. Kitten’s Red was disappointing, failing to pick up in a slowly-run race, and we might look at all-weather options for him now. Field Of Light made a promising debut, staying on well having been held-up early, and Jim Crowley was very complimentary about him afterwards.
At Wolverhampton, Ejbaar made an encouraging racecourse bow to finish fourth having been trapped a little wide – like Field Of Light, he will learn plenty from his initial experience.
Finally, we were delighted to welcome Australian jockey Chad Schofield to Newmarket yesterday evening for a three-month stint riding in Britain, and he belied his jet-lag to partner three lots for us this morning, making an excellent first impression.
For a mere 21-year-old, his record is an extremely impressive one, which includes victories aboard Shamus Award in the Cox Plate and Lankan Rupee in the Newmarket Handicap.
We will, of course, be using him as much as we can, but with the ability to ride at 8st and the excellent Tony Hind acting as his agent, we expect him to be in hot demand over the course of the summer. We wish him every success!
More tomorrow. Ed.