Swiftee
An overcast and slightly cold morning but the weather is meant to warm up as the week progresses thankfully. There are a lot of ground variations at the moment with the ground fast at Ascot and Bath for example but Thirsk is under water in places. The horses continue to look well and they were eased into the week this morning on Warren Hill.
I was delighted to have a double at Newmarket yesterday on 1,000 Guineas day and both wins gave me immense satisfaction. The blinkers seemed to work well with Oasis Fantasy as he showed good resolution to see his race out well but I think he will be even better if we can get him to settle early in his race. Global Applause is a horse I have thought a lot of at home but it was great to see him go to the track and reproduce his home work. It was a very professional experience and I think there were some decent horses in behind him. We will look to the Olympic Glory at Newbury or the National Stakes at Sandown now and take it from there.
We have three runners today. Kafoo runs at Bath in the 0-65 Classified Stakes, he appears to have come on for his seasonal debut and I hope the blinkers can concentrate his mind. The second favourite has been withdrawn and I hope he can break his maiden tag today but he has been frustrating so far. Swiftee runs in the first division of the Windsor mile maiden at 2:50, he showed us he has some ability at Newmarket but there looks to be some nice types in the race and he will be better in time as he is a big horse who is still not the finished article. On The Bill makes his debut at 3:25 in the second division of the 1m maiden, he is a horse I like but as with a lot of my horses he will benefit from the run and there are some horses in the race with some strong maiden form.
It was hard not to be impressed with Minding in the 1,000 Guineas yesterday, the two year old form very much held up and the further she went the better she went. She deserves to be a short priced favourite for the Oaks and it was interesting to hear just how highly Ryan thinks of her. Swiss Range also looks a very smart filly for John Gosden and she put the Pretty Polly to bed very quickly when quickening off of a slow early pace.