A glorious day here in Cape Town with the temperature in the mid-30s. Things are a little chillier at home, I imagine.
Happy New Year to you all! I hope everyone enjoyed a fantastic festive period. I can't believe January has come around again!
I flew out to South Africa over the weekend and Mrs D is set to join me on Thursday for a couple of weeks of relaxation before preparations for the new season really step up a notch.
I spent the day at Newlands yesterday where the action was a little more sedate than had been the case on Sunday. Stokes’ lesson in opposition butchery was one of the great Test innings of all time. The pitch might have been flat and the bowling pretty average, but to be as savage as he was for two sessions was nothing short of remarkable.
Saying that, watching Hashim Amla return to form yesterday was entertainment of a very different kind. He’s silky smooth at peak form.
The show continues to roll on back at home and Toffee Apple made her third start at Wolverhampton yesterday. She travelled nicely for quite a way under Willy Twiston-Davies before being outclassed in the straight, but she now qualifies for a mark and should stand more of a chance in handicaps.
We run one today with Timia having been installed as favourite for the seven furlong maiden handicap at Lingfield (3.30).
Timia ran promisingly over course and distance last time and her opening mark looks a fair one. Our filly deserves to be at the head of the market on the balance of form and this is a poor race - it’s probably indicative that four of the five runners are three-year-olds. We’re hopeful she will go very close to breaking her maiden here.
While I’m at it, we run a couple of newcomers in the mile fillies’ maiden at Chelmsford tomorrow (2.30).
Capricious Cantor is a beautifully-bred daughter of Cape Cross out of the Doncaster Cup winner Alleluia. She hails from a wonderful family as a half-sister to Prix Royal-Oak winner Allegretto amongst others and is a nice prospect for the year ahead, although she will no doubt improve for the run. Champion jockey Silvestre de Sousa is back in town for a couple of days so we snapped him up quickly to ride.
Fun Money does not have such an illustrious page, but she is a similar filly in the sense that she will also want further in time and will benefit plenty from the initial experience. She will wear a hood for debut and Nicky Mackay partners her.
I’ll be blogging intermittently while I’m out here and we have a few more to run on the all-weather throughout January.
Back soon.
Ed.