Shades of May started slowly and never got into the race at Lingfield yesterday evening; and was beaten a long way off not much of a mark; he clearly has to do a bit better than this to stay in training and we will have a careful think about the right approach with him going forward.

Amakhala runs for the third time in Goodwood's valuable Plate (3.00); possibly the race at York at the Ebor Meeting might exceed it fiscally but that apart this is the most valuable Selling Race for Two Year Olds ran all Season. Our guy did show some improvement on his second start, at Wolverhampton the week before last (and we were pleased with the way he was going on close home), and he is likely to improve again this afternoon; to actually win that improvement needs to be of the order of 20lbs or possibly more on what he has achieved on the track; he will both get a mark after this run and been seen to better effect in Nurseries; and possibly over further than five being from a seven and eight furlong family; so the most likely outcome this pm is for him to run pretty well, be going on in the closing stages and to finish not to far off the placed horses; whilst winning this afternoon is probably beyond him at this stage in his career he is actually overpriced a 50s and 66s in terms of getting in the frame.

No runners tomorrow; more about the Week Ahead tomorrow but the ew dabble of the week might be Vilaine Verlaine in Newbury's good class twelve furlong Handicap, the last race on their Wednesday afternoon card; the ground and, particularly, the track are all set up for her to run well and she is progressive as she goes up in trip.