I spent Tuesday and Wednesday at Doncaster with Tom and the Owens. We looked at half the horses in the sale and ended up buying 12 for Manor House stables – we’ve already sold three of them.
Doncaster is a good place to buy forward 2yo types – the pedigrees typically aren’t quite top class but the horses are generally pretty nice and they sell on looks rather than breeding. Tom has done well at Doncaster before – Walkingonthemoon and Don’t Tell Mary were Donny horses from last year. It was great fun being at the sales as part of a larger team and I’m very positive about the way things are going at Manor house.
Swindon lost on penalties at Wolves after putting up a really strong performance – I didn’t go as I was at the sales. I’m a bit gutted but it was a performance to be proud of and I increasingly believe that this could be a good season.
I was amused to read the public spat between Andre Fabre and Chrisophe Soumillon – I have no idea why they choose to wash their dirty linen in public, but I’ve noted in the past that Fabre isn’t one to be messed with. I was once with an English trainer at Deauville whose charge had just run behind one of Fabre’s horses. As Fabre walked past him in the ring he said something along the lines of “stick to your own f***ing races”. They don’t call him “Le petit general” for nothing.
I’ve got two runners today, and they should both go well at quite big prices.
Open Glory goes at Lingfield – there was a point in time when we thought she’d be the best of the Betfair Timeform Raceclub horses, but she’s been a disappointment. Tom reports that she is “going the right way” and she should go better today than last time – whether that will be enough to win remains to be seen, but I think it’s entirely possible.
Teia Tephi goes at Southwell in what looks a pretty poor race. She came last first time up, but it was a fairly close last and she ran very green. She has a dodgy knee and Pete’s had trouble getting her fit, but she’ll have benefited from the run far more than most as she has had so little fast work on the gallops. She came back completely sound last time, and has the right sort of action for the all-weather. Pete was very positive when I spoke to him this morning – by my thinking she’s a good thing.