Thoughts on Red Yarn at Kempton and review of recent runners

Red Yarn runs in the 5.30 at Kempton today (Wednesday September 5th) with Mickael Barzalona in the saddle. She made an encouraging first start for us at Lingfield recently and looked as if further would suit her, this is quite a big jump up in trip and may test her in the extreme as in her younger days it looked as if seven furlongs to a mile was her best trip. A naturally lazy horse who takes plenty of encouragement, Mickael will certainly have to earn his riding fee as she only gives when asked! The race is not a very strong race as it is restricted to horses who have not won more than one race. Neige D’antan and recent winner Star Kingdom look likely dangers given who they are trained by in this sort of race, however its difficult to rule out any of Chapter Nine, Avon Supreme or Roman Senate given they all have been showing a bit of modest promise recently.

Monday was a frustrating day. As a trainer one is fairly reliant on receiving accurate going reports when deciding where to send a horse. Your Word was sent to a Fos Llas as following a conversation with the clerk of the course on Saturday morning, he gave the impression that the going would was Soft , Good to Soft in places and therefore likely to be Good to Soft come race time. There was a negligible amount of rain forecast so the decision was made to send the filly on the three and half hour journey. On arrival it was apparent that the going was soft at best, despite there only having being 4mm of rain in the intervening 48 hours. Its hard to believe therefore that the going report given on Saturday morning was anywhere near accurate, especially when the jockeys coming in reporting it was heavy. A wasted race as the filly clearly failed to act on the ground. Great Charm missed the break in a race where the leader got the fractions spot on and was never a factor as he couldn’t make up ground in a race that was fought out between the leaders, there’ll be another day for him.