Swiss Cross Our Last Chance of a Royal Winner

Akhmatova has made her way over to Woodbine this week to take part in the $89,000 Dance Smartly Prep Race. 

Since her first run at Alrington she has really come to terms with the American way of life. She has been working incredibly well over the last few weeks and we have gone to Woodbine with a lot of confidence. She only has five other contenders to beat and local jockey David Moran will be taking the ride. The race will be shown on the At The Races and is off at 7:26pm UK time.

Etarre ran a very nice race for us last night at Newmarket. She finished 4th of 15 and after leading majority of the 1m trip, just got a little tired in the last half a furlong. This is completely understandable as she hasn’t ran for a while and the Newmarket track can be testing at the best of times. We were delighted with how she behaved herself as she has been known to fret in the past. We are sure she will come on for the run and will gain confidence in herself. Apprentice jockey Kieran O’Neill gave her a great ride and we are sure she will be winning before long. 

Swiss Cross will be running in the Wokingham today at Royal Ascot. Our last chance to have a winner there this year after Beauchamp Xerxes’s disappointing run yesterday. We are slightly concerned about the ground as he has been going so well on the faster ground we have endured since April. Still, he more than deserves to be taking his chance in the race and you never know, he may just surprise us! We are under no illusions that this is a very tough race to win but we think that if he handles the softer going he will run a bigger race than his price suggests. 

The American duo of Todd Pletcher’s unfortunately suffered the consequences of the Great British weather. The ground was far too soft for both of these horses. So typical that we have been in a draught since April and when the foreign raiders come to challenge, the true English summer sets in and spoils their fun. I hope they are not too disheartened and have enjoyed the Royal Ascot experience and would love to welcome them back next year.