String under the trees.
Predominantly overcast.
Rain, rain everywhere. Or so the forecasters are saying. The south is due a severe dousing for most of tomorrow which has caused havoc with declarations for the weekend. The vibe appears to be expect some dig and for that reason we have declared Zarwaan to run in the International Handicap at Ascot.
He wouldn’t line up on quick ground, but that is looking unlikely now, and there aren’t many options for this horse so fingers crossed we can let him run. We also declared Europa for the mile and five handicap at the July Course and Naady to run at Lingfield.
One runner this afternoon with Field Of Light tackling the mile and a half handicap at Wolverhampton. As I said on Tuesday, this is our last stab at 0-70 company and it doesn’t look a great contest on paper. We have put the first-time blinkers on to help him concentrate, and there aren’t too many riders better than Adam Kirby on the all-weather. He deserves to be favourite and we are hopeful he can get the job done.
Five entries for Wednesday including Oasis Fantasy and Prince Gagarin at Goodwood. We are desperate to run the former in the Summer Handicap on Tuesday, but we thought it prudent to give him an alternative option given his ballot situation. We need two to come out to get in there so we stand a decent chance of lining up.
Prince Gagarin has taken his trip to Scotland extremely well and we wanted to have a look at the Gordon Stakes with rain in the air.
Finally, we said goodbye to Anthony yesterday as he is preparing for a short trip to Europe before returning home to Australia. The team enjoyed an excellent farewell meal at The Plough and we wish him all the very best of luck for the future – hopefully he will return to see us at some point!
Ed.