We have made another good start to the season, I am pleased to say. With 130 two-year-olds in training, I felt it important to get them off to a 'flyer,' as we had done the previous season, just to show it was no flash in the pan.
We have made another good start to the season, I am pleased to say. With 130 two-year-olds in training, I felt it important to get them off to a 'flyer,' as we had done the previous season, just to show it was no flash in the pan.
It is hugely competitive in the two-year-old ranks, and if you can get a good start with your young horses, it is a big advantage.
In 2015, we had three winners on the first day of the season, and from that trio we ended up with two horses rated 102 and 117 later in their careers. Clearly, being forward early does them no harm long-term.
At Kempton Park on March 26, we had Boater win by 7 lengths and Chupalla by 6 lengths. Both are by Helmet, and they have not been seen out since, but soon will be. Next month, one will be aimed at Chester's Lily Agnes (Conditions) Stakes and the other at a Listed contest at York. As yet, I haven't decided which goes where.
This is a wonderful time of the racing year, full of hope and expectation.
I have fond memories of Guineas weekend at Newmarket, which is understandable, I suppose. I have trained the winners of both the colts' and the fillies' Classics, and that inevitably colours your vision to some extent.
Mister Baileys got the better of Grand Lodge in a thrilling finish to the G1 2,000 Guineas in 1994. He was a G2 Royal Lodge Stakes winner, who we were training for the G1 Derby at Epsom. In retrospect, though, he was a 'miler,' and an outstanding one, too.
I often think that I might have approached it differently if I had known then what I know now about the whole business. But isn't that true of life, in general?
Attraction won us the G1 1,000 Guineas in 2004. She was a brilliant filly and one worthy of having her name on the Classic honour board.
I will saddle Buratino for Godolphin in Saturday's G1 2,000 Guineas. He won the G2 Coventry Stakes, over 6f at Royal Ascot last June, but I never saw him as an out-and-out sprinter.
He has been working well since his first gallops early in the year. He is a very easy horse. He has done very well in a couple of racecourse gallops, over 7f and 1m.
Lumiere, carrying the colours of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, will represent us in the G1 1,000 Guineas on Sunday, and while some sceptics question her getting one mile, I am not one of them. There is no doubt in my mind that she will stay the trip.
She has so much early speed, I can see why some may doubt her, but I can report she has been very settled in her work at home.
Lumiere is one of my favourites. She is right up there in my top three two-year-olds of all time, now we shall see if she can graduate to the same bracket as a three-year-old. She is already a G1 winner, and a very exciting filly.
We also have Fireglow, by Teofilo, entered for the 1,000 Guineas. She has been working with Buratino and Lumiere and is a very nice filly.
