Misu Pete at Nottingham on Saturday
We will just be running Misu Pete at Nottingham on Saturday (12th May). He goes in the 6:05; there are 16 runners and luckily he is drawn 2. That should help keep him out of trouble. It is a race restricted to Apprentices who have ridden less than 20 winners and the fewer winners the more weight they can claim. Some of the apprentices we have been using are elsewhere on the day so we are going for another young lad based at Andrew Balding’s called William Carver. He has had 1 winner from 14 rides so he really is new to the game but he is very well thought of at Balding’s and I’m sure he will be looking to follow in Jason Watsons’ footsteps. The advantage of having only ridden one winner is he will claim a very valuable 5lb and we know Pete will look after him. The ground will probably be good to firm but I don’t think it will bother him. Silvestre De Sousa actually though he might appreciate better ground. He’s still in good spirits at home so let’s hope he can go well again.
The ground looks too quick for Born To Please at Lingfield and it’s probably not the right track to chance her on quick ground. We’ve had to look at higher grade races for her after going up in the handicap. There are a few around but some are a distance away and we don’t know what the weather will do. If we look slightly higher again there is a 10 furlong Apprentice handicap at Newbury next Friday 18th May. I think it looks a good race to go for. We have always thrown her in with low weights against better horses and it seems to have worked so far. Also if there is a track you can risk running on quicker ground it is Newbury. It’s flat; there is always a good cover of grass and horses rarely come back sore from there. Interestingly Bayston Hill is also entered in the race. It is yet to be decided if they will both run but he beat her at Bath last year so the rematch could be on! Newbury is our local track and it will be nice to have a runner there. It is a day meeting; the race is at 5:20 which I think is the last. Hopefully a few of you can make it.
Before Born To Please, Bird For Life has an entry at Salisbury on Thursday 17th May. It’s a new meeting that’s been put on to make up for cancelled meetings and there is a tailor made race for her (run at 4:25). It’s a mile and a half; there won’t be many runners and the ground should be right for her. She’s quite a handful at home at the moment so we really need to run her! My only concern is she will carry top weight; Ryan Tate has done a great job on her but we might have to claim off her.
Black Truffle came out of his race fine. As his next races aren’t until the end of the month we have turned him out in a paddock for a few days which I’m sure he will love. He will come back raring to go! Lastly, we got send a lovely photo of Shamonix after winning at Wolverhampton which I have attached.