Good Afternoon from Newmarket.
Although the turf season is underway, it is back to the AW for us in the main this week, and that includes a runner apiece at Chelmsford and Wolverhampton today.
In the mile three-year-old novice at 3.30 at Lingfield we give Dancingwithwolves his seasonal reapperance. A big and strong son of Footstepsinthesand, he was quite hot and tricky to handle last year, and showed a lot of fizz when making most of the running before finishing fourth at Kempton on his debut. We have done a lot of work with him over the winter in order to try and calm his nature, and the next step of course is a return to the racecourse.
He definitely has some talent, but we need to see him learn to race properly, so hopefully he will get a lead under Daniel Muscutt this afternoon and finish his race off well. There is always the danger of a horse like this running his race the wrong way round, but I hope we are getting the hang of him and I look forward to seeing what he can do.
In the 7.30 at Wolverhampton, a mile and a half 0-70 for three-year-olds, Achaeus makes his handicap debut from a mark of 64. He showed real promise on his two outings at the back end of last year, and will improve plenty for his seasonal reapperance at Kempton last month.
From an excellent German family that tends to do better with time and distance - he is a half-brother to the Melbourne Cup winner Almandin - he rates a lovely long-term prospect. He will appreciate the extra distance today, and I would hope to see a decent step forward from his previous run. In a competitive race he might have a small each way chance, but I would caution that by saying I do anticipate improvement from him throughout the year.
All the best,
Ed.