A thoroughly miserable day here in Newmarket and the prospect of good ground vanished when rain fell heavily overnight, there has also been steady rain all morning. We worked some of our horses this morning on the Al Bahathri and I was happy with what I saw.
Sheikh Hamdan came to see his horses this morning and he seemed happy with how his horses are looking. We run Makman tomorrow in the Novice Stakes and I will talk about his prospects in tomorrow’s blog. Patrick Cooper racing manager to Mrs Patino also visited La Grange as well as Charlie Gordon-Watson who has been helping me look at the Craven Breeze Up prospects.
We have three runners today, Cliff Face and Dora’s Field run in the 2:10pm Maiden Fillies’ Stakes. Dora’s Field ran twice at two, she has a lot to find on form with the principals and I am just hoping she shows some promise for the future. Dora’s Field makes her debut and she will improve for the experience. Archimento ran third in a warm Leicester maiden with slight ease in the ground, he will come on for the run but I am hoping he can acquit himself well.
It is disappointing Illuminate has been withdrawn from the Nell Gwyn but it is still a very interesting race. Nathra must take all the beating, she has strong soft ground form and convincingly beat our filly Alqubbah at Newbury. Her form behind Minding in the Fillies’ Mile sets the standard and Coolmore and First Victory will have to improve to beat her. Fourth Way finished behind Alqubbah on debut and will have to improve for a Winter on her back whilst Robanne is closely matched with First Victory and showed a lot of promise last year.
Tonight I shall be attending the Breeze Up Sales, there were many nice horses breezing alongside the Rowley Mile yesterday and I expect the market to be strong.