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 …
Guineas thoughts
The 2,000 comes around, and it’s not as strong a race as it might have been. Several leading fancies, Winker included, have fallen away and no surprise packages have emerged. The ground will probably be genuine good ground, which will suit most but not Raven’s Pass. The big question for me is whether I can get away from New Approach. Everything …
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 – …
The joy of six
Timeform rated Bouguereau‘s run 107 whereas the Racing Post went 105. Either way he rates good enough to have a go at the Italian Derby. They’ve moved the race forward this year (May 11) which is good for us, but they’ve dropped the distance from 2400 to 2200 metres which is not so good. Prize money is currently 1 million …