We were at Leopardstown Racecourse on Friday evening, where Danehill Quest ran win credit on his seasonal reappearance. He was drawn wide over his minimum distance of a mile, he struggled to travel early before staying on very well in the last furlong to beaten around 5 lengths. Sheila is considering a race for him at Gowran Park over 10 furlongs, next week. With a bit of luck he can pay his way over the Summer.
We also have a couple of nice 2yo’s in training with Sheila. Ivaquestion a colt by Ivawood, his 1/2 sister, Truffles won four races for the Lavery stable, including twice in the same week at the 2018 Galway Races. Sheila is happy with him, he has a stalls certificate and has been away to work at the Curragh, so expect to see him out very soon.
Jazzelle is a smart, athletic type of filly, who has joined Sheila this week having been in pre training. She had a set back earlier in the year after getting cast in her stable but it may have been a blessing in disguise as she has strengthened up and developed in that time. She is forward going and wont take long to come to hand.
The fast ground has been a major issue for National Hunt Trainers this season with such a dry winter many horses simply didn’t get an opportunity to run. One of our National Hunt Horses will be kept on the go during the summer, Tommy hilfilly, she is trained by Dermot McLouglin and is reported to be schooling well and will be ready to start off in the coming weeks.
In other News
There was some great racing over the weekend at Newbury and it was a smart performance from the Sir Micheal Stoute trained Mustashry in the Lockinge stakes, he won in impressive fashion, booking his ticket to Royal Ascot in the process. Back in second place, was the mighty Laurens, who looked magnificent in the preliminary’s and will most likely improve for the run. Her owner John Dance is quite a character and hopefully he is rewarded with his decision to keep her in training at 4.
The Listed Canarvan stakes over 6 furlongs was won in good style by the quirky Khaadem, who dropped Jockey James Doyle leaving the parade ring. He like Mustashry is owned by Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum. His Trainer Charlie Hills reported that the the Group 1 commonwealth cup at Royal Ascot is his next target.
Kingman was a seriously talented Racehorse and is proving to be a force to be reckoned with at stud, the Roger Charlton trained Headman looks a gorgeous big scopey horse for the future when winning the London Gold Cup handicap over 10 furlongs.
Tally Ho stud’s sale topper from the Craven breeze up, which fetched 850,000 Gns, won impressively on debut over 5 furlongs for Godolphin and Charlie Appleby at Windsor on Monday. It’s important for the breeze up industry that these horses perform on the track and this filly looks to have a bright future.
All eyes are on the Curragh this weekend for the Irish Guineas. Lets hope they can overcome the well documented “teething problems” from their opening meeting. It will be disappointing if they can’t as a lot of time and money has been spent on this project and they pretty much had a blank canvas to work with. Ireland deserves a world class venue to match the caliber of racing we have here. Having recently attended the English Guineas at Newmarket, I was in awe of the facilities, service, views and design of the restaurant.
Whatever happens there is sure to be a big crowd and some great racing. Too Darn Hot has spiced up the 2,000 Guineas, having been rerouted by trainer John Gosden, it was no surprise that he was beaten at York, on very fast ground, given his splint issues, it will be interesting to see if he can bounce back. Paddy Twomey’s stable is in blistering form this season Decrypt and Foxtrot liv are worth keeping an eye on at bigger prices in their respective Guineas.