I haven’t seen the ante post books but gather that we have the first four in the betting for the Coral Champion Stakes: Adageo Bob (10-3f), Domino Storm (5-1), Swift Whirlwind (7-1) and Blonde Razor (8-1). Our other two, Jimmy Nailed On and Patchys Kerry are both 14-1.
Overall, the Champion Stakes has not been a particularly lucky event for us. We have only won it once with Eye Onthe Veto (2007), compared with three wins in the Essex Vase, plus another when Linda was in charge (Top Power).
I am hoping that Adageo Bob gets his overdue bit of luck in the event. He has been our most prolific winner for the last two year. Last year he went into the event on a lengthy unbeaten sequence but went out in a semi won by our other runner Reel Trickyone.
He is a great favourite with Romford racegoers where he has 22 wins and 6 seconds in 34 races and is the joint track record holder (34.67).
Whether or not he is value at that price remains to be seen. Age might not be on his side but it is only a month ago that he clocked 34.96.
I think the best value of our six is probably Swift Whirlwind. He had a flat spot when he started to run against all-aged dogs but he seems to have his mojo back.
He beat Blonde Razor by five lengths on his last visit to Romford and then won a very good Towcester A1 in 28.08 last time out. I would expect him to go a long way.
Blonde Razor, like Adageo Bob, is also a veteran, but is experienced and runs the track well. Domino Storm is attempting the distance for the first time but loves the Hove 515 metres and is not slowing at the winning line. I m confident she will stay.
Jimmy Nailed On probably has a future over a slightly longer distance and Patchys Kerry is fast but a little bit draw-dependent.
We had a great time at Towcester last week even though we were comprehensively beaten in both big races.
On Thursday, Ribble Atom ran a creditable third in the Colossus Bets Television Trophy for Lord Hesketh. I’d said in the column previously that she was a young bitch who I was hoping would make the final. She ran as well as we could have possibly hoped behind a good winner in Ballymac Bonnie.
We had a few winners on the night and I thought Towcester really adapted well to the TV coverage which looked excellent.
The circuit has taken stick in some quarters for apparently favouring front running railers. But there was no shortage of wide seeds and strong finishers among the winners.
On Saturday, we had two in the Lowther Stakes and I thought Evanta Evita ran very well behind a phenomenal winner Forest Twilight, who is quite clearly the best bitch in training by some distance. Poor Domino Storm got no sort of run at all.
Billys Bullet is progressing nicely from his broken hock. He is already given freedom to the middle sized paddocks. The next stage is a switch to the larger paddocks where he can twist and turn and gallop around a bit quicker.
I will probably find a suitable bitch to kennel with him. He is quite a laid-back dog and his partner should be one who likes to run around a bit without too going too mad.
We still have our hearts set on the St.Leger, but we are still five weeks away from his first trial. There will be a lot of work to do at home, but unless we can get a trial into him by October 1st, we simply wouldn’t have enough time left.
The hock itself looks great. Daniel Docherty is a fantastic orthopaedic surgeon.
Although the odds are against you with a broken hock, they are even greater when it comes to a shattered wrist, and Blonde Snapper won a Derby after breaking his so we will never lose hope.
While some kennels concentrate on having as many Derby runners as possible, I have always tried to fill in gaps where we are short over the various distances.
We have probably been short of genuine Derby dogs for a while now and are hoping that a couple of the new dogs will go and develop into them. We have lots of young dogs with potential coming through.
A good example is Newross Johnny. He won a Towcester A3 last time out in 28.77 but is only a March ’14 whelp.
He is due to contest his first puppy open at Towcester on Saturday and looks a decent prospect.
