A gloomy morning here in Newmarket and it has turned cold too. There were a few sore heads this morning after our Easter drinks at the George and Dragon last night. Everyone had a lot of fun and we conducted some informal football trials for the stable lads 5 a side competition to be held later in the year. I think we may have found a secret weapon. The horses all seem well and we used the grass on Warren Hill this morning to stretch their legs.
We have two runners today at Kempton Park. Dutch Uncle has some smart form to his name but he has not been seen since last summer. We gave him a gelding operation and I hope that he has benefited for it. The draw has not been kind to us and we start from stall number ten of twelve but I hope he can run well. Obviously there are concerns after such a long absence and he will improve on what he does today but the horses have been running well. Michael’s Mount makes his seasonal debut over 7f in the 1600 maiden, it seems the right trip to start his campaign off over but he should get further in the future. I hope he can show us some promise.
I shall be at Kempton Park this afternoon and so I will miss the action out in Dubai. It looks a fantastic card, the filly Polar Eyes could be anything. We have the intriguing clash between Tryster and Intilaaq in the Dubai Turf, a fascinating Sheema Classic with Postponed looking to build on his win last time and of course the Dubai World Cup itself with California Chrome looking to overcome his wide draw. The other races on the card are also mouth watering and I shall look forward to watching them on replay.
My other love is of course cricket and England have a must win game against Sri Lanka, win and England make the semi-finals but if they lose they are on the plane home. We beat South Africa in a record run chase before an unconvincing win against Afghanistan, I hope we can put that behind us and find our top form this afternoon.