We ended up having no runners last week but it’s a much busier week in prospect with runners at Warwick on Monday, Southwell and Kempton on Tuesday.
Astrum was very disappointing last season, showing more signs of temperament than ability on his first two starts before a glimmer of promise at Leicester. He had excuses when disappointing on the AW in two nurseries (6f too short/hampered next time) but needs to fully focus on the track this season. His work at home suggests he’s well handicapped off 54, so hopefully he can show more on his return at Warwick on Monday. There are only seven runners and while the tacky ground isn’t ideal, it isn’t the most competitive of races, so he could run quite well, although nothing would surprise.
Tuesday sees the yard back at Southwell, our horses tend to do well on the fibresand surface but both Isis Blue and Gladiatrix are making their debuts there and until they have actually run on it, you don’t know how they will handle it. Isis Blue has strengthened up nicely over the winter and he made a very promising three-year-old return when runner up in a competitive race at Kempton, staying on strongly inside the final furlong despite been checked. He has only gone up a pound and as Tuesday’s race isn’t any stronger and as long as he handles the fibresand, we’re hopeful he will go close. Gladiatrix really progressed in the autumn, landing a four-timer and she should progress again this season. There aren’t many options for her in the opening weeks of the ‘turf’ season and she was balloted out at Kempton on Saturday, so our hand is forced to go to Southwell. It probably isn’t the ideal track to run her, as she can get behind early and it provides a unique test against some course specialists like Even Stevens. However, she needs to get a few runs under her belt and she has plenty of ability so it will be interesting to see how she gets on.
Nothing really went right for Icebuster last season, he missed most of the turf campaign and was then unsuited by slowly run races on the AW but showed he retains all of his ability when third at Kempton in a very competitive handicap in the autumn. He has had an uninterrupted preparation this winter and we’re hopeful he can regain the winning thread at some point this season. Once again, the main concern on Tuesday would be a slowly-run race but there are a couple of prominent runners and there are only ten runners so he should find some space up the home straight under Jamie Spencer and he definitely has each-way chances.
We have just uploaded a Stable Tour onto the website. At the moment it only contains the older horses but a two-year-old tour will be uploaded later next week.
