Prince Apollo and Sole Bonne Femme set for quick fire doubles

Whilst we were pleased with Pachattack’s first run of 2011 (3rd in the Winter Derby), we were a little disappointed that more use was not made of her as her best performances have always come from her dictating the race from the front. Still, we will continue to look ahead and her owner Michael Deegan and I will be discussing future races for her.

Tomorrow we have 3 runners; Prince Apollo and debutant Rainy Champion up at Musselburgh and hurdler Sole Bonne Femme at Stratford-On-Avon. 

Prince Apollo has dropped back in distance and up in class since his win at Kempton. We don’t think either of these factors will be an issue for him and we could not be happier with how he has been training since his last run.  First time out Rainy Champion has slotted into a nice, small fielded maiden. Half the field already have multiple runs under their belts so we hope one of these more experienced runners will go on to give him a nice lead round. You can always expect a little first time out greenness but we have been happy with his progression at home and think he should run well. 

Sole Bonne Femme is bidding for a quick fire double after winning 2 weeks ago at Fakenham. Young Charlie Wallis will be taking the ride again taking a valuable 7lbs off of his back. He has been very fresh and well this week at home and seems to be in a good frame of mind. We are expecting a good run from him.

As you may have already read in the press, this year we are assembling a formal team to go out to the United States and Canada for the entire season.  We will send members of our own staff and will take over a string of six to eight horses at the end of April and train from a base at Arlington Park for the first part of the season.  They will then move to Woodbine after the Arlington Million. The Arlington Million meeting will be the focus of stage one, and the Canadian International meeting will be our target for the second half of the season.  Both of these meetings offer staggering opportunities in terms of prize money and prestige but the feeder races leading to these prestigious end of season finales are significantly beyond the scope of what can be achieved domestically.  So rather than travel over for one-off high status races, we plan to organise our entire racing schedules from within the country and try to win our share of prep races on the way to the main the prize.  This is a pattern which we intend to repeat in seasons to come until we have established full-time parallel operations on both sides of the Atlantic. It is very exciting for all concerned and we will keep you updated as always as events unfold.