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Martin Dixon analysis | The Horse Watchers review and horses to follow
Martin Dixon of The Horse Watchers gives us an update including an exciting juvenile from Ayr and plans for what could be a productive week for the ownership.
The dream is still alive
I've got to kick off with a word or two on Hornsea Bay after his debut win at Ayr last week. He's an exciting colt and he's just a little bit different to what we're used to in terms of our ownership, but an opportunity came up to buy him and we did.
David (O'Meara, trainer) and Jason Kelly were at the sales at Arqana and he went through the ring unsold. So we were able to strike a deal to get him. He's not a typical breeze-up horse in terms of pedigree, being more of a longer-distance prospect on pedigree, but David and Jason sent through all the information and confirmed that they really liked him. We were very keen on him when we looked at the pedigree, the videos of him and everything so we bought him.
David hasn't been in any rush to get him ready or anything and the horse has taken his time to come to hand and tell him that he's ready, but going into the race last week he'd been working encouragingly.
We didn't necessarily expect him to go there and be an impressive winner - we expected him to run well but what he delivered was over and above our hopes and expectations.
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How deep the race was overall I don't know but the time has come back pretty good and he obviously beat the form horse and strong favourite (Bambalam) into second. And it's fair to say he wasn't fully extended to win by three lengths.
So he's an exciting horse and we'll look to run him again in October. He could go for another novice race potentially or we might look at the Silver Tankard (Listed) at Pontefract, it'll all depend on when David feels he's ready to run again and what the ground conditions are like.
We wouldn't worry about running on softer ground as he moves like a horse who will handle it, he stays well and there are soft-ground horses in the pedigree too. But wherever he goes next you probably wouldn't want it heavy as there's just no need to be doing that at this stage.
We've never had one like this before as we haven't bought many two-year-olds, but for that reason alone he is very exciting because he's different to what we've been used to, and I suppose at this moment in time the dream is still alive for his three-year-old season.
He's bred to be a middle-distance three-year-old and he's very laidback, he relaxed well in his race the other day and it gives you encouragement that he's got the right mentality to be staying a mile and a half next year.
Baldomero will be kept on the go
Cymbidium also ran at Ayr, finishing fourth in the seven-furlong nursery. She ran well but just got stuck a little bit wide and was probably unsuited by going back to seven having seen out the mile strongly at Thirsk the time before.
She does have an entry for Ripon on Saturday so that's a possibility but we still think there are wins in her off her mark and going back up to a mile should make a big difference again.
Going back to Doncaster, it was great to see Baldomero winning again. We don't yet know what he's gone up in the weights but will find out on Tuesday morning.
He loves soft ground on the grass and he's also very effective on the all-weather. To be honest, we gave him a short break in the mid-summer so he'll be running into the autumn and I've just given him an entry at Ripon on Saturday so we'll see how he is later in the week.
He could then potentially go to York for the Coral Sprint Trophy on October 12 if the ground is soft. He'd need it testing to be running over six furlongs at York.
There are also a couple of races back at Doncaster too, there's one over six furlongs on the final day of the turf season - November Handicap day. So he'll likely have at least a couple more runs on the grass before getting a break and then return for the all-weather season as well.
Although he's only won three times, the great thing is that he's won over £200,000 in overall prize money since we bought him so he's been fantastic.
Cambridgeshire pair on track for HQ
Penzance ran a promising race when fourth in the 10-furlong handicap at Doncaster. He had had a little bit of a break after Yarmouth and hasn't had an overly busy turf season because he'd been on the go through the all-weather.
It was good to see him run that well at Doncaster as it suggested to us that he can be just as effective on the grass as he is on the all-weather. The handicapper has dropped him down another pound from that to 95 but he will run (off 96) in the Cambridgeshire this Saturday, provided that they don't get loads of rain. So he is a bit ground dependent but he's an intended runner.
Zozimus will also run at Newmarket if he gets in. He got a run last year off a similar rating and before we bought him he was fourth in the Cambridgeshire when he was trained by Donnacha O'Brien. He likes a little bit of juice in the ground.
I think you need a horse who stays well in this race and Penzance would probably stay a mile and a half so he's got the more obvious profile for it and he has stronger form, but if they get their places in the field then we'll be happy to take our chance with both.
A promising week in store...
Walsingham is all set for his debut in our colours and for David in the novice race at Redcar on Wednesday.
He was one that we really liked and probably our number one pick at the horses-in-training sale last autumn. He was a horse that we really wanted to get and obviously managed to.
He was declared for Musselburgh back in the spring but had a little bit of a setback and missed the summer. We were keen to get him running before the end of the turf season and thankfully he's come right.
Seven furlongs will be the bare minimum for him and he's going to want further but it looked like a good race to get him started in. The ground is probably going to be good - it'll be better there than it is most places this week - and we'll see what happens.
He'll probably have a run or two on the all-weather, primarily as he's had so much time off, but he shows plenty at home. He's possibly going to need the run but I'd like to think he'll run well. These novices at this stage of the year can be a little bit less competitive than handicaps so, given he's been off the track, it looks a nice place to get him started again and see where we're at.
Rhoscolyn and Zealot both run at Goodwood.
Rhoscolyn won this race last year and it has cut up a bit so there are only seven runners. He's now 3lb higher than when he won this race 12 months ago but has won off his current mark already at Epsom this year.
Crucially, it'll be the softest ground he'll have faced since winning at Epsom and the softer the ground the better his chances. Conditions are perfect to be honest and he goes there and shows his form then I'd expect him to be bang there.
Zealot, who is by Pivotal, handled the soft ground at Goodwood quite well last time. It'll be even more testing this week but the race is over a furlong shorter and Fred (Larson, jockey) just felt last time that on that ground he was just at the end of his tether stamina-wise.
So this shorter race immediately looked like a good option on the back of the latest run. He's not had much turf racing he's clearly fully effective on soft ground on the grass and he's come down the weights to a good mark. This test is the right race for him.
Sonnerie Power is also declared on Wednesday so hopefully it's a decent day for us! He's drawn in stall eight in the 11-furlong handicap at Kempton and he has found his form and some consistency again.
His second to Saint Riquier a couple of runs ago has worked out well as the winner has won by a wide margin again since so that looks solid. He seems more consistent on the all-weather than he is on the turf and he just looks like he's ready to win soon, having become quite well handicapped.
He's quite a free-going horse and he ideally wants a truly-run race, so when he gets the right set-up and gets a bit of luck then he looks like he'll win again. On the advice of Cieren (Fallon, jockey) we've taken the hood off him on Wednesday as he felt it was maybe just holding back his finishing effort a little bit. Cieren was keen to ride him without the hood.
Three latest additions
We have added to the team since the last update too, including Sanat who cost 30,000 guineas out of Roger Varian's. He's a very lightly-raced sprinter who has only had two handicap starts over six furlongs, both times looking like he was still a bit immature.
But we were impressed with how he travels through his races and he's a good-looking horse who cost a lot of money originally. He's by a good sprinting stallion in Invincible Spirit and we thought that he idled a bit when won at Nottingham.
He's already been gelded and he's with Mick Appleby. Hopefully he'll be ready to run some time around February and there are actually some shares available in him.
There are shares available too in Monsieur Melee who we bought out of Jedd O'Keeffe's yard. He's a horse for the next turf season, he's with Rebecca Menzies and he's going to be given the winter off.
He looked like he was going to be pretty progressive when he won at Doncaster but he didn't quite go on and hopefully he'll improve in 2025.
We also bought a horse called Cooperation who has gone to Mick Appleby. We bought him for the all-weather programme through the winter, he's dropped to a career-low mark and is the sort of horse Mick might do well with and revitalise as he goes well on the all-weather tracks.
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