Chromium & Shufoog at Newbury
It would be true to say that Arlecchino's Leap did not run as well as we hoped he would at Lingfield yesterday, the only rationale being that he was caught out wide for a goodly part of the trip; the other possibility is that as he gets a little older eight furlongs is on the short side for him nowadays. Island Jungle, though, ran his best race for Rowdown, up in trip and in pieces for the first time; his opening mark ex Godolphin was 76 and he ran off 70 yesterday so a little further ease should see him become more competitive and he might not be that far away in his next couple of runs.
We take Chromium and Shufoog to Newbury this evening; Chromium, who we bought for our Nursery for just £3.5k, has always shown a fair bit at home and her two modest runs on the aw in May and June were during the spell when the Yard was quiet; switched to turf over six furlongs at Newbury at the end of June she showed a lot more ability when keeping on really nicely to be second behind a nice filly of Richard Hughes, witness the video here. Early season Nurseries are difficult races to read (packed full of unexposed horses and there will be one or two nice guys with real potential in this evening's race) but our filly who is tough and straitforward should make some further progression as she gains experience and she could run a nice race this evening. By the by Chromium's sire is Cable Bay who Charlie Hills trained to finish second in the Dewhurst Stakes as a two year old four weeks after being left for dead by Miracle of Medinah in the Group Three Somerville Tattersall Stakes at Newmarket.
Shufoog runs in the last race on the card, the twelve furlong Fillies Handicap, under Ellie Mackenzie; she is proving a really effective dual purpose person for her generous owners and she is handicapped to be decently competitive this evening (particularly if you allow some of Ellie's Claim), although you will have to forgive her last run over ten furlongs here at the beginning of the month to arrive at this conclusion; this run, like Chromium's two aw runs, were at a time when the whole string was quiet. She goes to Newbury to run better, she will be given a chance this evening and should be competitive as she begins to improve from the back.
Misu Pete and Sellingallthetime go to Chepstow tomorrow evening, although we will have to keep a careful eye on the ground in South Wales as the sun continues to beat down.