2 Out Of 2 At Perth!

It was another good day for the stable yesterday with the facile success of Ainsi Fideles (pictured above) in the 2m4 1/2f handicap chase at Perth.  He jumped very well in the main, with the exception of an error at the tricky ditch and he scored fairly much as he pleased in the hands of Tom Scudamore on this handicap debut.  This was certainly a good piece of placement by David to find a three runner race and preserve his unbeaten record over fences - I expect he will be looking for further opportunities for him over the coming weeks.  His success made it two wins from two runners at the meeting and with Ainsi Fideles adding £7,596 to the £9495 won by His Excellency the day before, it was certainly a worthwhile trip.

It was another good day for the stable yesterday with the facile success of Ainsi Fideles (pictured above) in the 2m4 1/2f handicap chase at Perth.  He jumped very well in the main, with the exception of an error at the tricky ditch and he scored fairly much as he pleased in the hands of Tom Scudamore on this handicap debut.  This was certainly a good piece of placement by David to find a three runner race and preserve his unbeaten record over fences - I expect he will be looking for further opportunities for him over the coming weeks.  His success made it two wins from two runners at the meeting and with Ainsi Fideles adding £7,596 to the £9495 won by His Excellency the day before, it was certainly a worthwhile trip.

What a race for the "Duel On The Downs" yesterday at Goodwood as Kingman overcame a farcical early pace to post another impressive success.  While the unsatisfactory nature of the race meant that the leading protagonists did not produce personal best performances, it led to a thrilling finish with the first three covered by little more than a length.  I thought the most impressive thing about Kingman was that despite appearing not to particularly relish this faster surface and not handle the camber of the track, he still gave the leading older miler first run and cut him down with ease inside the final furlong.  The sectional timings were interesting with the first couple of furlongs covered in around 15 seconds a piece while the final furlong was covered in sub 10 seconds with the winner apparently reaching an incredible 44mph.  He is without doubt the leading miler in Europe and it will be fascinating to see if connections decide to keep him in training as a four year old as they did with the mighty Frankel.  

This afternoon there are five meetings taking place with four on the level from Glorious Goodwood, Epsom, Ffos Las and Nottingham while there is a National Hunt card at Stratford.  The stable has one runner today, Party Girls who goes in the 5.00pm, a 2m6 1/2f novices' handicap hurdle where she will be partnered by conditional jockey Michael Heard who takes a handy 10lbs off her back.  She has not shown much form of late and would need to improve to figure, but this doesn't look to be the strongest of races with only a handful of the eight runner field showing much recent form.

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I am looking forward to the start of the Bridgestone Invitational golf tournament today.  The Racing Post have picked up on what I was talking about yesterday, how eight-time winner Tiger Woods is a relatively unconsidered 16/1 chance.  I am longing to see how the drama unfolds and will certainly be a most interested spectator.

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Things are looking good for England's cricketers this morning as they need only(!) six wickets to record their first Test match success in eleven games.  India require a world record score if they are going to win the match, so unless the elements spoil the party the home team should get a result.  It was good to see Alastair Cook score his second half-century of the match with an unbeaten knock of 70 and hopefully this will have done his confidence the world of good.

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