Another weekend of dashed hopes, capped with Bouguereau finishing down the field in 7th in the Italian Derby. Well at least I can say I’ve had an odds-on favourite in a Group 1, which is rare enough. Bouguereau is a super horse, but he’s a big, fairly lean galloping type with real staying power – he isn’t a speedster, and …
Michel gets in
A winner on Tuesday night with Kings Head doing it nicely. We€™ve believed for a while that he is a decent hurdler in the making and it€™s good to see a little proof of that. He needs top of the ground and he doesn€™t get that often in the winter months, so he€™ll probably always be a summer horse. His …
On a decent mark
The first piece of collateral form for Bouguereau comes today with Patkai, who runs in the final race at Chester. I like him as a bet. He was staying on in the Newbury race and will surely benefit from the extra two furlongs – he may also prefer the ground today. 90 doesn’t look like too harsh a mark and the …
All systems go for Bouguereau
I spent the whole morning deliberating about Bouguereau and whether we should have a tilt at the Italian Derby. Pete didn’t want to go unless we flew as it’s a long way to box a horse and they invariably run badly after a long trip like that. We thought there was a flight to Rome, but then we found it …
Ho Hum
Max performed poorly, trailing in eleventh of fifteen 11 lengths behind Natagora. It was a messy race and Natagora was a lucky winner in the end with a few hard luck stories in behind. Max was very tricky going down, and Richard had to dismount twice. At one point she nearly took out Aiden O’Brien who brushed past her at an awkward …
Max bet
The big day arrives for Max and everything has gone as well as it could have. The ground is probably about right. She seems to be spot on and ready to run her race. Her draw (10) looks pretty good – she’ll need a bit of cover and wouldn’t want to be stuck out left or right. No excuses. One …
Not what I was looking for
Sill no luck with the horses. Effingham was last in his race and Skid Solo was last but one – not the results I was looking for. It’s all small fry compared to Max’s run on Sunday, and I haven’t wasted any luck. Effingham was truly awful and we couldn’t find any obvious excuses. He’s destined for the July sale at …
Little do they know
The week begins and all my thoughts are with Max One Two Three. I spoke to Mick earlier and he said he dreamt about her last night – I hope he didn’t cry out anything compromising. I read a couple of write ups on the 1,000 this morning, neither of them mentioning Max. “Little do they know” I thought. Bouguereau …
Collateral form
I’ve had jumpers running over the last few days with no luck In truth it’s been a pretty disappointing jumps season – some fairly expensive purchases have run poorly, the only real high point having been Mon Michel winning a few months ago. I’m pretty happy with what I have for the flat this year though – the first big day …
Max on target
Max One Two Three did an important piece of work this morning, and was scoped afterwards. She worked really nicely and scoped clean – we are now bang on for the 1,000. She will have one more piece of work early next week and that will be it. She is a very decent filly with a real turn of foot – …