A warm and sunny morning has given way to a cooler afternoon, although we look set for a dry day.
Less than twenty-four hours on and the whole yard is still abuzz from the amazing performance Trip To Paris delivered to win the Chester Cup yesterday. Stop the race two furlongs out and he has no right to be placed, let alone win, but his turn of foot on ground that would have been soft enough was special. As I said yesterday, the Cup is a race I have long wanted to win – dad managed in 2002 – and to do it with a progressive young stayer who is owned by a wonderful bunch of people was just amazing!
What next? Trip To Royal Ascot? Trip To Newcastle? Trip To Melbourne? We’ll need a few days before committing to anything just yet…
God Willing also ran a commendable race at Chelmsford yesterday, finishing second on his reappearance in the one mile handicap. I thought Andrea gave him a peach of a ride, hugging the rail and setting a steady tempo, and he just got nabbed late by a race-fit rival. He should strip fitter for that performance next time.
No runners or entries today but four declarations for Saturday. Oasis Fantasy, Red Galileo and Zarwaan will head to Ascot with the latter contesting the Victoria Cup. He’s been handed stall 14, slap bang in the middle of the field, so at least that gives us options. Souk Al Tahab will also head to Nottingham for the 1m handicap.
After lamenting the wet weather for our Cup duo yesterday, we have now firmly slapped on our dancing shoes to encourage the rain to fall on the Roodee ahead of Prince Gagarin’s tilt at the Dee Stakes tomorrow. John Gosden has already declared Snoano a non-runner on account of the worsening surface, but deep ground won’t bother our horse so the heavens can remain open as far as we are concerned!
Finally, following on from the jubilant scenes at Chester yesterday we experienced a second high-profile success in the evening as Martha and her Morton Hall Netball Club teammates handing out a mighty walloping to win 90-4! Best of all, their strip closely resembles the colours of Trip To Paris so the duo of successes must have been destined to happen!
Back tomorrow.
Ed