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Friday 10 March

Fri 10 March 2017

Zamjar

Another pleasant start to the day here in Newmarket and if we can have some sunshine for the majority of the next three weeks it will be extremely helpful. I worked a handful of horses this morning on Waterhall as we slowly ready some horses for the start of the turf season. Stephanie Thornton has joined us here at La Grange for three weeks, she was one of two Apprentices who have been given the chance to come to Newmarket and  broaden their horizons by the IFHRA Racing Scholarship Fund. She has ridden 33 winners in Australia and I have been impressed by what I have seen so far. It was sad to see that Dandy Nicholls has retired as he was undoubtedly a magician with Sprinters and was able to improve horses time after time through the handicap ranks and up to the highest level.

I was delighted to break the run of seconds when Solajan won at Lingfield on Wednesday. He is a scopey son of Lope De Vega who I hope will improve as the season progresses. It was a very messy race and the time was very slow because of that but thankfully Adam Kirby used his initiative and ensured that the race was not a complete farce. We will now save him for the turf and he will have a short holiday.

We have two runners up at Newcastle this evening. Blushing Red ran very well when running into a solid type last time at Wolverhampton and we believe he will stay one and a half miles. He has achieved the best form so far and is open to more improvement so we will be disappointed if he does not win. The second favourite was well backed last time when he disappointed but even on his good third on his penultimate start he still needs to find two lengths plus improvement. Tewafeedj takes a big step up in trip but he will have to improve on what he has shown so far and if this was a handicap I would imagine Highwayman would almost be running off of level weights with us factoring in the weight for age. You can never take anything for granted in horse racing but he deserves to be a short priced favourite.

Zamjar ran in the void race at Wolverhampton where he ran ok but he got tired in the latter stages of the race. He was returning from a two month break and so he was entitled to, especially given the strong winds he had to encounter. There is every possibility he will be able to make up the length he needs to with Alkashaaf at a track that suits him better than Chelmsford. Wick Powell has some very good two year old form and Royal Opera House is very unexposed despite being given a high opening mark of 87. Kamra showed more last time and he has ability whilst Erissimus Maximus returns to a track he likes. Hemingway returns from a break and represents a yard in good form whilst Dazacam will be aided by a valuable five pound claim. Our horse has solid each way claims on some of his form and the horses are running well but this race does have a lot of strength in depth.

 



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