Overall I was delighted with the way the horses ran over the weekend. Proponent did not enjoy the ground and got tired in the closing stages, Al Kazeem was most impressive as I am fairly sure that his preference would not be for soft ground but he showed a good turn of foot and lets hope he is destined for some of the top races.  Top Offer travelled well but the writing was on the wall from some way out as James said, he was unable to handle the conditions.  I hope to start him off in a Condition race and build him back up with time and patience for the better races but he is unlikely to run in the Irish 2000 Guineas.  Definightly ran a marvellous race but Ryan reported that the ground was not really soft enough for him but there should be opportunities over 5 furlongs at Listed and Group 3 level.  Mince ran a most encouraging race and will continue in sprint handicaps in the near future but unfortunately, Tioman Legend got a little upset in the stalls and raced with the choke out.  Although I have yet to see Primevere's race I thought it was a most encouraging reappearance and having to make the running in a slowly run race would not have suited her and I hope she will win a Group race during the summer.  I have just returned from Hong Kong having watched Cityscape run in a rather muddling and frustrating race. Unfortunately, he missed the break and they crawled for the first four furlongs and sprinted up the straight and we were always fighting a losing battle from our position and the ground was perhaps a little firmer and fairly cut up compared to Meydan. He will return home later this week and have a quiet period before discussing future plans with his owner.

Today we have  three runners at Kempton with Supreme Quest running in a five furlong handicap.  Unfortunately for unknown reasons there has not been a single 5 furlong maiden race for 3 year olds that she has been eligible to run in as in my opinion she would have a better chance in a maiden race as her handicap mark does not give her much room for improvement. She is in good form and should like the surface.

Supreme Quest

Alvitude (USA) runs for the second time in the first division of the mile maiden race and probably due to the ground this is a very competitive race and an outside draw is not helpful.

Alvitude (USA)

My old friend "six timer"  Camberley Two runs for the first time on the polytrack and he seems to be in good order but I will be looking forward to stepping up to 10 furlongs if James thinks that that would suit him.

Camberley Two

Primevere (Ire) runs tomorrow in the Dahlia Stakes which Sea Of Heartbreak finished second in last year. Her work has always been most encouraging and I am pleased with her development since last year.  The race looks particularly tough with Timepiece a Group 1 winner amongst them but it will tell us where we should be heading in the future.  She is a good moving filly and may appreciate better ground.

Primevere (Ire)

 Charlie Henson has been in charge of Cityscape since his arrival in Hong Kong and his daily reports have been encouraging. Each day he is making progress, eating more food and relaxing into his environment which has been extremely hot and humid. He is drawn 7 of 14 with plenty of pace on his inside and I would hope that he might get a better trip round than when he was forced wide before finishing 2nd in the Hong Kong Mile over course and distance in December. Maybe it is too much to expect to win another big prize and he had a long journey but the first prize is worth five and a half times more than the Lockinge !

Cityscape

We have a busy day ahead of us with six runners at Newmarket tomorrow and one on Sunday and not forgetting Cityscape who runs in Hong Kong.  Proponent runs in the first race and I would have preferred him to have been drawn in the middle rather than 1, as he needs plenty of cover in his races.  He is a wonderfully reliable gelding who has run in this race three times having won it in 2008 and he was second to the well handicapped Green Destiny last year. He pays the price for being so consistant and he runs off his highest ever handicap rating of 103 so life will be difficult for him.

Proponent (Ire)

Al Kazeem runs in the next race the Jockey Club Stakes over a mile and a half having been declared a non runner last weekend at Sandown due to the very soft ground. It will be a fascinating contest with Dunaden (Fr) who won the Melbourne Cup and Hong Kong Vase as well as Masked Marvel who won last years St Leger running in the race.  Al Kazeem looks really well and I hope is the type of colt to progress from three to four years, he will probably improve for the race and I would have preferred to have started him off in a Group 3 or Listed race.

Al Kazeem

Top Offer has been our big hope since last August and finally we are nearly there. He is a wonderful looking colt with great presence and an easy action that may not be suited by the soft ground.  He has to show considerable improvement from his easy maiden victory last August at Newbury. It looks competitive as you would expect with three good colts from France and three from Ireland in the field. His work has been good but we won't know until we try as to whether he is quite up to this class but I am sure he is a Group horse.

Top Offer

Definightly runs for the first time over 5 furlongs but his programme has always been geared to whereever there is a description of soft in the going.  He does show plenty of speed in his races and it will be interesting to see how he copes with the dropback in trip and being ridden by Ryan Moore for the first time.

Definightly

Both Mince and Tioman Legend run in the six furlong handicap. Mince probably has the best form of the two and is ridden by Harry Bentley who claims a valuable 3 lbs.  She can be very laid back and tends to like eating more than working but she is in good form and I hope will run well.  Tioman Legend has not run since June and will improve from the race and I get the feellng that being rated 94 is much too high on his homework.

Mince

Tioman Legend

The news from Hong Kong and Charlie Henson is encouraging with Cityscape getting fresher and enjoying his work although it is very hot and humid at present so all the horses are having a good sweat whilst out at exercise.  Cityscape has been drawn 7 of 14 with plenty of pace on both sides of him which I hope will give him a decent chance of producing his best form. It is a difficult task nonetheless to take on mainly "local residents" who have not had such a stressful and long journey.  The connections including James Doyle are due to fly from Newmarket after the 2000 Guineas so that we can catch the 6.20pm flight from Heathrow and arrive in Hong Kong for the race at 4.35pm on Sunday.

Cityscape

The rain continues to fall both in Wiltshire  and with at least 24 millimetres overnight at Newmarket turning the ground to soft. Should the forecasters be correct, which they rarely seem to be, the ground should dry out to good to soft for racing on Saturday.  We have six runners due to travel to Newmarket and it should be an exciting day especially with Top Offer running for the first time since August.

Top Offer

Cityscape exercising in Hong Kong

I thought that Cactus Valley ran an encouraging race to finish 4th having met plenty of interference and showing signs of greenness, the experience will have done him alot of good.  Nimble Thimble was outpaced early on and lost her position and she also met with plenty of interference but she stayed on in the straight and  James thought that she might stay 12 furlongs eventually.

We have two three year old maidens running for the first time at Kempton this afternoon.  Cactus Valley (Ire) runs in the first division, he is a gelding by Lawman out of mare by Sadler's Wells and his second dam Hatton Gardens was a good stayer in Ireland.  He is still rather green and inexperienced and would be suited by more than a mile but at least today the ground will not be bottomless !  

Cactus Valley (Ire)

Nimble Thimble (USA)  is a half sister to several winners including; Three Valleys (USA) but unfortunately she has yet to show me much of his speed and brilliance. She can be quite a character and there have been occasions when she has been lose on the downs at Beckhampton causing a certain amount of anguish to the rest of the string. She is a good looking filly and by Juddmontes ever increasingly popular Mizzen Mast.

Nimble Thimble (USA)

The news from Hong Kong is that Cityscape is settling in well and getting back to eating normally. I gather it has been rather wet and humid with some violent thunder storms but he is due to be ridden out tomorrow for the first time having had two "easy days" being led out.

Cityscape arriving in Hong Kong

Although TraderJack seemed to handle the ground when it was very soft at Ffos Las in the Autumn, he certainly could not cope with the Sandown going yesterday. He was perhaps a little free going to post and needed settling during the race but James Doyle said that he hated the ground which was in fact incredibly testing and he got rather tired in the closing stages.  Hopefully next time he will be less fresh and more able to cope with the conditions.  It was interesting that  Mark Johnson's Rafeej who also won on the same day at Ffos Las, was well beaten in the sprint.  We have got no runners today as I decided it made little sense in running Al Kazeem under yesterdays conditions and he will be re-routed to the Jockey Club Stakes at Newmarket next Saturday or the Huxley Stakes at Chester the following week.

Trader Jack runs in the Esher Cup at Sandown this afternoon against five other rivals.    He has form on heavy ground having won at Ffos Las last year when he beat Lycidas in convincing fashion, I notice that Lycidas was tailed off on Sunday when he reappeared in a Group race in Germany.  He is a big strong colt and the type to benefit from his first race and with the ground being testing, there will be a premium on fitness as several of the other runners have had a run recently. I would expect him to progress and stay further.

Trader Jack

Cityscape starts his travels again today when he leaves Beckhampton at 4.30pm to travel to Heathrow, with a two hour stop in Dubai and then onto Hong Kong. It's a demanding schedule but he seems to have coped well in the past but it is important that they travel well and take on plenty of fluids as well as food on the aeroplane. The conditions in Hong Kong are wet and muggy at the moment but expected to dry up after the weekend.  There are likely to be 14 runners and Cityscape will be the only horse flying direct from the UK.  Godolphin's African Story is an intended runner together with some of the horses that he beat in the Dubai Duty Free last month, that include Ambitious Dragon, Xtension and Musir of Mike de Kock's.

Cityscape

After heavy and prolonged rain during racing at Pontefract yesterday afternoon, the ground became heavy by Stir Trader's race.  Under the circumstances I thought he ran really well to finish 2nd even if he was beaten 14 lengths by the runaway and presumably Listed class winner !   Our runner at Windsor on the otherhand hated the ground and ran rather slowly to finish somewhere out in the gloom and there is room for considerable improvement which I hope will come on better ground. 

With the continued unsettled weather,  we are only likely to have a handful of runners but nothing until Sandown on Friday.