The time has come to name the 2yos, and the Comic Strip Heroes horses are always good fun to do. Jeremy and I compiled a list of around 40 names and we sat down with Ed to hammer it out.
We have three colts with Pete by Rock of Gibraltar, Bahamian Bounty and Fasliyev – they will respectively be named Maxwell Hawke, Skid Solo and Jasper the Grasper. The two with Brian (Pivotal colt and Auction House filly) will be Cheddar George and Pansy Potter. The Choisir colt with Ed Vaughan will be Scrapper Smith and the Mizzen Mast filly with Paul Cole will be Keyhole Kate. All provisional awaiting approval. We also have an injured Verglas colt with Brian who will miss his 2yo year – we won’t give him a name for now.
My preferred name was Cheddar George who was the greedy one in “the Nibblers” in the Beano. If he turns out well I’ll be taking all the credit.
I still haven’t named my Kyllachy filly. I told Pete’s secretary that I wanted to call her Ming Ming, but news reached me a couple of days later that the name had gone down badly with both Pete and Tom Goff – they think “ming” has negative connotations (as in minger).
I’ve lived in the farm for a week now and a small miracle has occurred – I haven’t had any headaches. I’ve lived with my headaches for as long as I can remember – I wake up pretty much every morning with a slight (or more serious) headache which normally improves as the morning goes on but often goes the other way. In the last week I’ve woken up every morning with a clear head – it’s incredibly good news if it continues.
I have a runner at Newbury tomorrow – King’s Head goes in the 3:50. He’s had a few problems but he may have turned the corner and with the right conditions could run a big race. He consistently posted 100+ Timeform/RP rated performances on the flat and he’s on a hurdle mark of 108 – if he runs up to his best he could be thrown in, although to be fair he has yet to run that well in a hurdle. It’s good/soft at the moment but it should dry out a little on what is forecast to be a sunny and windy day. If the ground firms up a bit I’d say he’s worth an interest.