No orders - but you have to keep planning for the future
I don’t have orders so I don’t go to buy horses. It’s about trying to make some new contacts and meeting people and hoping that they might send a few your way.
You have to keep planning for the future or else when it arrives, you’ll suddenly have a lot of empty boxes. You keep working. You keep telling people ‘I’m here’. We spoke to the breeders of Laughing Lashes and Gush, amongst others, and I was pleased with how it went when we caught our flight on Wednesday afternoon.
We had travelled over on Sunday so I didn’t get an opportunity to discuss Dragon Pulse’s future plans with his owner Dr Tan.
He ran a brilliant race. If you’re going to get beat by anything, I’d rather that it was the best horse in the race and Power was the highest rated. He was rated 5lbs better than Dragon Pulse who got to within half a length and was catching him, but just not quickly enough. What’s more, Dragon Pulse was more than a length clear of the third. He is now rated 116, which makes him the joint second highest rated two-year-old in the country at the moment alongside Maybe.
So what he did was confirm that he’s pretty smart and there is plenty to look forward to. It’s great to have a horse that good.
We were very happy with Violet Lashes in the maiden. She’s a big filly and will have learned so much from that. I would expect her to improve a lot from that and she ran a very good race. Gush ran disappointingly but she hasn’t been 100% since she came back.
Unfortunately, we had to withdraw Princess Sinead as she had an abscess in her foot but she’s fine again and she’ll go for one of the listed race at the Curragh, maybe the Charlie Weld or one of those.
Bible Belt and Siren’s Song both got bogged down in the ground in the Blandford Stakes on Sunday but Paradis De Thaix won the feature at Listowel in perfect conditions for him - two and a half miles on soft ground. It was brilliant for the owners because they’ve been so patient. He broke down badly nearly two years ago but they waited and he’s slowly come back to form. They’ll have a bit of fun with him because he’s still a novice and there are plenty of opportunities for him.
Beir Bua took to handicap company very well when winning the following day. He ran well in Galway after a break, without ever threatening, and I think the flatter track suited him. Meitheamh was third to Shadow Eile in her first run after a break so she will come be better for that.
Hurricane Ridge never got going. It’s funny how things work out but the first three in the maiden she won in Killarney have all been favourite next time out and have all finished last. So maybe that race took more out of them than we thought and we’re just waiting to see what happens there now.
Bullock Harbour just couldn’t quicken up on the ground. He got away with it in Killarney but it wasn’t as bad there, it was yielding and he wouldn’t want it any softer than that. He settled well and jumped brilliantly and Barry was very happy with him. You can’t really ask for any more.
The Bull Hayes was third giving a lot of weight to the winner and the second horse and what pleased me most was that he looked like he might be swallowed up turning in but really dug deep. What’s more, it means that he is running with a bit more consistency now, which hasn’t been the case before. He is gone up a couple of more pounds in the handicap now and isn’t far off earning a shot at a conditions’ race.
Anything else that ran, the ground killed them and it’s as a consequence of that that I have had no runners yesterday and the same applies today.
In Fairyhouse tomorrow, I will have four travelling. I was hoping for a better draw from Elusive Lashes because I’m very happy with her, she seems to be in good form and will appreciate a little bit of a dig in the ground. Green Chorus makes her racecourse debut in the same maiden and whatever happens, she’ll come on for it. She’s a really nice staying sort who will be a mile and a half filly next year.
Absolute Crackers has a good draw in the Tattersalls race but it’s a very competitive contest with some good horses in it like Tough As Nails, who has been operating at a much higher level but has had a lot of racing. You’ll need a bit of luck in running and it’s one of those races where anything might happen. I’m hoping for the best.
I’m really looking forward to having Giving Orders back after a wind operation. If she can come back to her Dundalk run, she will go very well and should run a very good race.
The ground means that I won’t have too much during the week either until Fairyhouse on Thursday. That will be an interesting day with Steps To Freedom, whose participation is very much ground-dependent, Moonlight Dancer, Serein, Takeyourcapoff, Law Rebel, Clouded Thoughts and Thirteen Up all taking their chances.
