Disappointingly day 2 of the York Ebor meeting has been rained off and we have also lost racing at Carlisle to the weather.
Hopefully Folkestone and Hamilton will go ahead. Hamilton is Scotland’s only dedicated flat racing track. It was also the first track in Britain to stage an evening fixture on 18th July 1947. Sir Mark Prescott does well with the runners he sends up to Hamilton and he has Astrodome entered in the 12 furlong handicap at 4.50. Astrodome is going for a hat trick of wins at Hamilton, although he has some way to go to match the achievements of his half sister Alambic, as she won 6 times in 2006, only one of the wins coming at Hamilton though.
The other runner at Hamilton from my list to follow is Peruvian Prince in the claimer at 3.40. He put in some good performances last season, including a second to Greek Well at York but he has not been able to reproduce that sort of form this time around.
Over in Ireland they race at Tralee. The great Dawn Run has a Tralee connection as she won a bumper there were she was ridden by her 63 year old owner. (Since penning these notes Tralee has been called off as well due to waterlogging.)
It won’t be too long now before we can start thinking about the jumps season, we certainly have the weather for it at the moment. Champion trainer Paul Nicholls will no doubt have a big say in the destination of many of the big prizes; in fact he claimed the Galway Plate at the end of last month with Oslot so he has already got the ball rolling. As a reminder of his successes last season the picture below (courtesy of the artist Lisa Miller) is of the first 3 home in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Denman, Kauto Star and Neptune Collonges.
The next update will be tomorrow evening when hopefully we will be able to look forward to some racing from York.
ahorse 