Last weekend

We were really pleased with Pivoine at Newbury, it was a smashing run and he was a little bit unlucky. I’m not saying he would have won, but he might have got a little bit closer to Desert Encounter.

That run set him up for a crack at the Canadian International next month where he will meet the winner again. We’re very pleased with him and hopefully the race in Canada will really suit.

Shadn ran a lovely race in the Mill Reef against the colts. It was a really pleasing effort and obviously fantastic for her broodmare career to be placed in a Group Two.

There’s a possibility she will now go for another Group Two, this time at Maisons-Laffitte in a couple of weeks. It would be wonderful if she could win at that level.

Johnny Drama was disappointing in the valuable handicap, I really don’t know what went wrong. He’s better than that and will have another run before the end of the season. There’s a race at York in two weeks, so let’s hope he can bounce back in that. 

Stone Of Destiny has been on the go for a long time and he disappointed in the Ayr Gold Cup. We’ll pull up stumps for the season now and hopefully he’ll be back next year.

Newmarket on Friday

We’ve decided to step Foxtrot Lady 18/1 up in trip to a mile for the first time in the Rosemary Stakes (13:50). She is better on a sound surface so wouldn’t want too much rain.

She ran well in the Sceptre Stakes at Doncaster last time and also ran a solid race in the Oak Tree Stakes at Glorious Goodwood last month. She seems in good form at home and even though her results have been a bit disappointing this season, she has won at Newmarket before and we hope she’ll run well.

Maqsad had some good form earlier in the season and is the one we all have to beat.

We were very happy with Shailene 5/1 at Newbury last week when she won the handicap. It was like a gallop for her really so we were happy to bring her here and have a go at a Group Three (14:25).

She’s been placed at Group level before, so we know she can cope. She’s pleased us during the week and fingers crossed she can go well again.

Happy Power 8/1 is a high-class horse and takes his chance in the Joel Stakes (15:35) which we won with Beat The Bank a couple of years ago.

It looks a very decent race with King Of Comedy, Zaaki and Benbatl in there, so it definitely won’t be easy. Any rain would be a bonus as it would inconvenience some of the others more than us.

Our final runner at Newmarket on Friday is Mon Choix SP in the seven furlong maiden (16:10). He appears to have no chance on his form figures, but he’s definitely better than that.

He got no luck at Sandown last time and even though Newmarket maidens are never easy, I’d say he will have a better chance than the odds suggest.

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