Girl With A Pearl
A beautiful morning here at Headquarters and the ground has moved back to good ahead of the start of the Craven meeting tomorrow. Some of the races have small fields but the Nell Gwyn looks very strong this year, the very soft going at Newbury has meant many of the principals have held their ground.
The jockeys who were breezing the Craven Breeze Up two year olds reported the ground to be riding on the dead side. This will of course be slightly different to the going on the Rowley Mile itself. It is a small catalogue but there are some very nice prospects in there, I expect the market to be strong.
We had a first, second and third from our three runners on Saturday and I was pleased with all of them. Rock ‘n Red was very brave when getting her head in front at Wolverhampton on Saturday night. It was not a strong race but Mr Arculli bred her and it is fantastic to win a maiden with her for him. Sagaciously ran very well at Lingfield on her comeback run and was closing down Top Tug down at the finish, I hope she can build on this and earn some black type as the season progresses. Dutch Uncle did not finish his race off and we will drop him back in trip now but he ran another sound race in third.
Girl With A Pearl runs at Windsor today in the 4:20. I would have liked there to have been slightly less rain but she is well and would have a chance in what looks quite a competitive little race.
The Masters was full of drama last night and it was fantastic to see an Englishman finally wearing the coveted green jacket once more. Jordan Speith looked to be pulling away from the field but no one is ever safe at Augusta and a quadruple bogey very much put him on the back foot. Danny Willett kept cool, calm and collected and a big puff of the cheeks after a cautious putt on the last was the only sign he showed of any pressure he was feeling. He had a nervous wait but Speith could not make an unlikely recovery and the man from Sheffield had most Americans quickly looking through their form guides to see what country the ‘unknown’ champion was from! He handled all of the proceedings that come with winning a Masters very well and I hope he goes on to further success.