Swiss Cross Comes Up Trumps On Derby Day

Swiss Cross continued his winning run when landing the 0-100 6f handicap on Epsom Derby day. After sitting second for a couple of furlongs, he went on to lead 4 furlongs out and stayed there to win by ½ a length. To win a valuable race like this is always great but it was made extra special by being on Derby day. We were delighted for his owner Mr Alan Spence also to have such an impressive winner on Derby day at his local track. He has come out of the race fresh and well and will now head to the Wokingham at Royal Ascot on the 18th June.

On Monday we had 2 horses arrive from America’s leading trainer, Todd Pletcher. More Than Real & Bridgetown will be staying here on a B&B basis during the lead up to Royal Ascot where Bridgetown will be heading for the Kings Stand Stakes and More Than Real will go for the Coronation Stakes. Todd’s assistant Virginia and groom Paul have travelled with the horses and Claire & Trine have been lucky enough to ride them out. We hope that they have a successful stay here and wish them the best of luck for the royal meeting. 

Burj Alzain will be heading to Woodbine this week to line up in the Victoria Stakes; a grade 3 race over 1m1f on Saturday with a purse of $150,000. He has been training very well since his narrow defeat first time out at Arlington and heads to Woodbine in great shape. Declarations for this race will be tomorrow and then we will have a better idea of how the race looks.

Joe Le Taxi will stay in Arlington to run in an Allowance race. He seems to have got over his disappointing start and hopefully he will perform more to the standard he is capable of next time. 

Maristar is set to make her reappearance in Iowa on the 24th June in the Prairie Meadows Overnight Stakes; a grade 3 with a $100 purse. She has been ticking over very nicely since her winning American debut so we are hoping for another good show from her. 

On this side of the Atlantic Prince Apollo ran well to finish 2nd today to a very smart horse of Marcus Tregoning’s. The ground turned pretty soft which may not have been to his liking but he ran another good race for us. He has been very consistent this year and we are very happy with the progress he has made. 

Cala Santanyi and Little Black Book will be heading off to Goodwood on Friday. Both horses’ fields are relatively small and fairly tough however we feel that both these 2 horses will have great chances in their races. Neither has done anything wrong in their careers and both are fit and ready to run. We have been delighted with their training and home work and are happy with the ground too. Ryan Moore takes the ride on Cala Santanyi, always a good thing, and Darryll Holland is on board Little Black Book. We are planning to run him under slightly more restraint this time so he see’s out the trip better than he did at Sandown.