King Joshua

04/08/2006

We were very happy with the way that World's Heroine broke her maiden at York and also with King Joshua's second start back at Ascot where he really seemed to be back on track. These were both very pleasing for their connections. Passing Hour ran a bit below expectations. After breaking poorly, she travelled well and then got tired within the last 150 yards. She will improve a lot for the experience and we hope she will be out over the next couple of weeks.

I thought that Bayeux ran well from what turned out to be a bad draw. We flirted with the idea of the Stewards Cup on Saturday, but due to the prevailing fast ground, we've decided to give it a miss.

I'm sure you have read in the Racing Post that we have retired two of our better horses. Compton Bolter has been a fantastic flag bearer for the yard with 12 wins and over £420,000 in earnings. He has travelled to America, Dubai and France on numerous occasions and invariably gave us a run for his money. He has failed to sparkle on a couple of occasions this year and after his run at Ascot on Sunday, we noticed a bit of heat and swelling in both tendons. On finding this, Mr Penser decided to retire him so he will eventually go back to his farm to enjoy his retirement.

Beauchamp Pilot, who has been suffering from a tendon problem over the past couple of years, has also been retired. He will accompany Compton Bolter to Mr Penser's farm to enjoy life at his leisure. As you know, he has been a great servant to the yard and won the Cambridgeshire in record time together with numerous other wins. Another achievement was a 3 rd to Grandera in one of the Maktoum Challenges out in Dubai. Both of these characters will be sadly missed around here however, we will be able to visit regularly due to the proximity of the farm.

Now our attention has turned to Glorious Goodwood. We all felt that Nayyir seemed to be in the form of his life, but once again the rub of the green didn't go his way. He turns out rather quickly today in the Totesport Handicap. He has to give a lot of weight but obviously has this for a good reason. There are one or two horses that due to the weight difference will be difficult to beat, namely Dunelight and Sir Gerard. He still seems to be in great form and with Frankie Dettori back on him, we can only hope for better luck in running.

We have three 2 year olds declared to run at Lingfield on Saturday night. Bajeel and Beauchamp Viceroy will run in the 5 furlong maiden and Muhannak in the 7 ½ furlong maiden. All three have been training nicely but I'm sure that they will all improve for the run. This leaves us with one runner to close the curtains on Glorious Goodwood this year. Diktatorial will line up for the apprentice handicap which we won with Ringsider two years ago.

There are three entries at Chester on Sunday but we will be keeping a close eye on the ground before making any decisions.