Sanam
It’s a cool morning here again in HQ but the cloud cover meant there was no frost thankfully. It was frustrating to just get denied in the Floodlight Stakes at Kempton but it was great to see Red Verdon finishing his race strongly and whilst he is still below where he was last year it was an encouraging performance and he was unlucky as I feel he may have swept past the filly if he had been able to come with one run down the outside. It was an incredible training performance by Joseph O’Brien to win the Melbourne Cup with Rekindling who stayed the trip well and I am sure he will return next year to try and regain his crown. There was a 1-2-3 for Ireland and the wait for an English trained winner goes on, I hope to be back next year to have another go at winning the race that stops a nation.
We run four horses today. Global Spirit runs in the 7f Nursery at Wolverhampton which is being run at 13:40. He should improve for 7f as long as he relaxes as well as last time and his mark of 65 seems fair. He does have a bad draw in stall ten however and I would be nervous if he cannot get cover and ends up being trapped wide. Kheleyfs Girl is consistent and arguably has the best form in the book whilst many of our rivals are similarly unexposed and have only had the three runs. There could be a well handicapped rival lurking therefore but I hope we won’t be too far away.
Lunar Mist and Sanam both make their debut in the Maiden at 4:20. Both have ability but they will learn a lot from their first experiences and won’t be as streetwise as the favourite who has had five starts and sets a fair standard. I hope to see encouragement from them both but I will be pleasantly surprised if we can turn him over. Dagueneau runs in the 5:45 at Kempton and he looks up against it but he improved a little from his first to second start and it would be nice to see him finish his race off and offer some encouragement for the future.