BUSY WEEK ON AND OFF THE TRACK: I’ve a good week this week both on the course and away from it with a couple of nice things done over the last few days.
On the course, it was a slightly quieter week but I got a good winner at Newcastle last Friday for Sir Michael Stoute which was really good as I don’t ride for him that often. More about that a little later.
MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, MAGNIFICENT SUCCESS
On Monday I attended the Magnificent Seven event in London which is run by Lord Coe and raises money for several charities. I was invited on behalf of Racing and it was a privilege to be there.
John Inverdale and Lord Coe both gave talks throughout the night and they made for a very interesting time.
There was a lot of money raised for various charities, Sport Relief and more with most of the money being raised through a silent auction. Each table had an iPad on which you could big for various items with one item being bought for £12,000 from a lady at my table!
I was bidding for tickets to the England v Ireland game in Twickenham in the 6 Nations but unfortunately I missed out. That went for just over £1,500! It was all for a great cause and it was a really enjoyable evening.
STARTING MY TV TRAINING
Yesterday, I spent the morning at the Sky complex with Alex Hammond who had kindly offered to allow me to spend time with her before I start on At The Races.
Little did I know that it would be a 4am start in London though!
It was well worth every minute though and it was amazing to see how everything operates there. Having left at 2am to be there for 4am, I stayed till just after 10 before going to catch a quick bit of sleep and then onto Chelmsford for a couple of rides yesterday evening.
MAGICAL THOMAS IS ONE FOR THE NOTEBOOK
Last Friday, I got a great ride for Sir Michael Stoute, as I said, with Onda District in Newcastle. He won pretty well, going away at the finish to win by about 4 lengths but he’s still quite raw and green. I think he’s been a little slow coming to himself but he will have learned a lot from that run and I think he should progress to be quite a nice horse.
On Wednesday, I was a little unlucky on Magical Thomas for Marcus Tregoning at Kempton. He’s definitely one to keep an eye on in the future as the race didn’t run to suit.
They went quite slow early on and I ended up tucked in just behind the leaders but I think this made him a bit claustrophobic and he pulled hard as a result. I managed to get some room as he went on and he really relaxed then but he had used up too much energy early on.
He was only beaten a length though and we’ll have learned a lot about him in that run and he should improve for it.
Looking ahead to this evening where I’m travelling to Salisbury for two rides with Miss Blondell looking like she should have a really good chance in the Nursery.
She ran well in her debut which was a decent Maiden in Goodwood before winning at Kempton last time. She won that quite easy but she’s still relatively green on the track. With there being only 7 runners, I think that should be in our favour and 73 looks like a nice opening mark for her.
Her trainer, Marcus Tregoning always has a good strike rate around this time of year so I’ll be hoping for the best.
I then go to Chester tomorrow for three rides but I haven’t ridden two of them and don’t know too much about them.
My first ride, Clockmaker I know very well and he loves around Chester. Last time, he was drawn in 17 which is no help around there but he’s better drawn tomorrow coming from stall 3 so that’s a big advantage. My only worry is that ground at the moment is Good to Soft and he is best on a quicker surface so I’m hoping it dries out a bit before then.
On Sunday, I’m making a rare trip to Ireland for two rides at The Curragh on Irish Champions Weekend. I have a ride in the first and the last with the one in the first being for Johnny Murtagh on Kasbah which is owned by Saleh Al Homaizi and Imad Al Sagar who I ride for quite a lot.
I was speaking to them earlier and they said that the horse is in great form and that this is a race that Johnny picked out a while ago for him so I’m hoping for a good run from him. It looks like a very competitive race.
My agent then got me a late call up for Pullman Brown in the last race. As you’d expect, this looks like being a really strong race and he’s running from 4lbs out of the Handicap. He has a couple of wins beside his name which is always good so we’ll be hoping for the best.
On Tuesday, I’m looking forward to a horse of James Fanshawe’s called Hallelujah who’s entered for Yarmouth. She’s had a long break, she hasn’t run since February but she really high quality filly and I can’t wait for her to run.
HOPING FOR STORM THE STARS IN THE LEGER
The St Leger should be a really good race tomorrow and I’m really hoping that Pat Cosgrove can take it on Storm The Stars. He’s had a really good season with two places in two Derby’s and it would be great for Patsy to get a big one like this under his belt.
He’s obviously got the best form in the race with third in the Epsom Derby and second in the Irish Derby and he looked to have Bondi Beach well held last time out. However, he’s had a fairly hard campaign and it’s easy for them to go ‘over the top’ after being on the go for so long and it can be very hard to tell in their work at home if they have.
Due to the going, Order of St George has been taken out so that leaves Aidan O’Brien with two, Bondi Beach and Fields of Athenry. I fancied Order of St George a bit more than the others for the race after he won very impressively at the Curragh last time. He’s going for the Irish Leger instead so that should be interesting to see him there.
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