Saturday 15th July 2017

A successful evening was had at the Newmarket sales last night. I bid on just one horse and beat off competition from two jump trainers. The hammer fell our way for 20,000gns. Our new horse or should I say filly, is called NEWT.

Newt is a 3yo filly by St Leger winner Sixties Icon, her dam Froglet, is a three time winner.

Newt is also a half-sister to hurdle winner The Tiddly Tadpole, Australian 1m2 Group 1 winner Beaten Up, 1m4 Group 3 winner Harris Tweed plus 1m4 listed winner Vow. Our new filly is bred in the purple, she has a gorgeous pedigree.

Newt was trained by Sir Mark Prescott, her last three runs show form figures of 1^st 3^rd 2^nd, beat in a photo on her last start. These efforts were over trips of 1m5 and 1m6. Newt has a huge amount of stamina for one so young and looks crying out for two miles on the level.

Newt stands at 16.2 hands, she’s a lovely big chunky mare as you can see from the below picture. With her size, scope and breeding, Newt looks tailor made for National Hunt Racing.

Newt will be campaigned as a juvenile hurdler, we know all about these races after doing so well in them last year. If you stay two miles and jump, you have a great chance of winning races through the Summer months. Newt will also receive the fillies allowance and gets plenty of weight from the boys. With her running style of making all, she’ll find the pace of two mile hurdle races ever so easy and should be highly competitive.

We aim to be up and running in three weeks’ time, long term it would be lovely if Newt could develop into a Fred Winter type. She has the profile to do so.

There are plenty of advantages owning a previous winning well-bred filly, they always have broodmare value so your guranteed a return. Newt looks grand value at 20,000gns.

Newt will be trained by David Dennis who is doing so well with our other mare Included. Shares will be available, I’ll get all the info written up over the weekend.

I’ve not had much time to go through the racing today but liked the look of Curiosity who won with more in hand at Newcastle than the distance suggests. I was at Newcastle and thought Curiosity could win again. The Hugo Palmer trained horse runs in the 1:40 at Ascot, the price of 7-4 looks fair and Curiosity should go close.

I'm looking forward to watching the July Cup, 4:35 Newmarket. This years sprint division is the best for some years. Caravaggio looks a monster whilst Harry Angel has been unlucky, would have been winning Group 1's any other year. The Tin Man did us a big favour a few weeks ago when winning at 8-1 and also lines up. This is a superb race. 

Elsewhere, Bin Battuta 5:00 Ascot would have gone much closer if not for being hampered at Royal Ascot, he should go well at odds of 7-2, well fancied today I here.

Over at Chester in the 3:00, Jungle Cat "7-4" takes a drop-in grade. With course specialist Franny Norton booked for the ride, it seems Godolphin mean business.

 NEWT