Busy Bank Holiday Ends With A Winner

We had a very busy Bank Holiday Monday with six runners at four meetings and most ran with credit before Astrum won the finale at Warwick. The Haafhd gelding has turned the corner as a three-year-old and this was his second success of the season, both at Warwick and he looks set to progress again as he wasn't given a hard time by Andrea and still won by a length and three quarters. His previous Nottingham third, where he ended up poorly placed, has worked out extremely well and hopefully he can get win number three in the coming weeks.

Pat had a good ride on yard veteran Shavansky and the pair didn't quite get up when losing out by a neck in a London Mile Qualifier at Kempton. Once again the £43,000 Final which he won last year will be his main aim this season. Isis Blue returned to form when third at Warwick, having disappointed on his two previous starts where he raced too keenly, so we decided to drop him out the back and made sure he settled in the early stages. While, he ran his race much more professionally, the first two raced prominently and he just had too much ground to make up but it was a step in the right direction.

Although she finished third, it was a slightly disappointing effort from Gladiatrix in the fillies handicap at Kempton. She didn't really pick up in the closing stages and it may be that six furlongs stretches her stamina but she needs to improve again before we target some Listed races. At Bath, Blue Anchor Bay was fourth in a maiden, he would have finished closer if he wasn't hampered by the third.

£20,000 Newmarket Success For Shahdaroba

Shahdaroba put up a much improved effort to land a £20,000 handicap at Newmarket's Craven meeting on Wednesday and winning a race like that is a massive boost for the yard. Despite being heavily backed, we felt a mark of 87 could leave him vulnerable to some unexposed sorts, especially after only finishing fourth on his seasonal debut at Doncaster so it was a nice surprise. He will now be campaigned in all the top three-year-old sprints, including the £100,000 Coral Sprint Trophy at York in June.



Meanwhile on Monday, Into The Wind made a very promising seasonal return when third at Windsor. As she normally needs a few runs, its augurs well for the future and she looks to have improved again from five to six.
Two-year-old Blue Anchor Bay was only sixth on his debut but should come on for the experience.

First Monday At Windsor

You can tell the turf season is under way when the Monday meetings at Windsor have started and we have two representatives there tomorrow. Blue Anchor Bay makes his debut in the opener and he is bred for speed and should make up into a nice two-year-old. It's isn't easy for us to gauge our two-year-olds at the moment, Master Carpenter slightly surprised us by having enough speed to make a winning debut while Dovils Duel has proved very disappointing in his two starts. Blue Anchor Bay will certainly improve for the experience but we hope he puts up a solid show with only one of his rivals having a run under their belts.

 Into The Wind keeps progressing with age and won two races last season. We feel she has strengthened up again from five to six but normally improves for a run or two and may just need this seasonal return.