Good morning from Newmarket. The shocking snow scenes all over the country have luckily not been replicated here, and the snow we did have lying has virtually all disappeared.
The difficult weather conditions have led to the BHA putting on some additional meetings however, and this afternoon we head to one of them at Chelmsford with two half chances.
In the 2.45, rather curiously a 0-58 handicap, we run Global Acclamation. This horse has been a cause of frustration, as he got himself handicapped with three promising runs, but has generally disappointed since over a variety of distances. A week ago at Lingfield we fitted blinkers for the first time, and they appeared to have a positive effect, as he overcame a wide draw and slow start to run respectably in seventh. The blinkers are retained and we drop down today to six furlongs, but a reproduction of that effort should see him competitive. He definitely needs to improve to win in against several potentially well treated fillies, but granted a decent pace we hope this race might play to his strengths and he won’t be too far away.
Just over an hour later in the 3.55 we run Global Art in a 0-80 mile and a quarter handicap, a very tight little six-runner race. This lad also ran a week ago, but was rather disappointing at a fixture where the tv pictures went down so we don’t really know what went wrong! By all accounts Global Art took it up turning for home and looked likely to go very close, but then didn’t see his race out, for one reason or another. It could be that the cheek-pieces he was wearing didn’t work (he has now twice run poorly in them) or it may be that he was feeling the effects of a long spell on the go. We don’t believe it to be the latter simply because he seems in excellent form at home, so we have re-fitted blinkers today in the hope that they can spark him back into life. He has worn them twice before, winning once and going close on the other occasion.
Both the horses go in competitive heats, but if they are able to show their best form they might have little each way chances. Liam Keniry will ride the pair of them.
All the best,
Ed.