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Monday 1st July

Mon 01 July 2019

Grandscape

Good morning from Newmarket. We are set for a relatively quiet time of it this week, with not a huge number of runners likely. However, we kick off with Grandscape at Pontefract in the mile and a quarter 0-70 lady amateur riders handicap at 5.00 and hopefully he can get us off to a decent start.

Grandscape is a regular partner of our stable amateur Sophie Smith, and they have formed a good relationship over the past year or so. In similar company at Redcar last season they were impressive six-length winners, whilst they have also gone close at Wolverhampton, Nottingham and Doncaster. The Doncaster run was at the Lincoln meeting in March, and suggested that Grandscape retains all of his ability, although a couple of runs since have been a little bit below par. His latest effort at Goodwood is easily excused as the ground was horrible (he likes an easy surface but that was probably too much), and hopefully from a pound lower mark he can be competitive this afternoon.

Grandscape’s ideal scenario over this trip is good ground and a fast pace, so let us hope that they can hold on to the good places at Ponte until the last race. There are a couple of possible pace angles, and they tend to go a fair gallop in these races anyway, so there is hope that things might set up nicely for Grandscape. Breaking from stall one should allow Sophie the chance to find some cover, and then it is a case of hoping the gaps come at the right time and allowing Grandscape to do his thing.

An honest and consistent horse, he is probably just a few pounds too high in the handicap for us to be confident, and any quickening of the racing surface will not be in his favour. That said, he is likely to give a good account and we wish Sophie and Grandscape the very best of luck.

 

All the best
Ed.


 



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