Tuesday, July 09, 2019
I hope our planning will have been relatively straightforward this week.  I entered three horses and intended to have three runners.  I think that we'll end up only with two, but that's fine: the one not to run would be Das Kapital (who is entered at Chepstow on Friday) and his absence won't be for any sinister reason, merely that the rain which the forecast had suggested might be going to fall in south Wales won't have fallen.  He seems not to like the ground too firm, which is understandable as he's a big horse with an extravagant action, and if there still hasn't been any rain there by tomorrow morning, I won't declare him.

That'll leave us (touching wood!) with Roy at Lingfield tomorrow (Wednesday) and Loving Pearl at Epsom on Thursday.  Roy's got this far without ever winning anywhere other than Brighton, but I feel that if he is ever going to win elsewhere, tomorrow will be the day.  But still doesn't mean that I'm expecting him to win!  Whatever, it'll be good to see him run over two miles.  He finishes strongly over a mile and a half at Brighton, leaving one wishing that one could run him over farther, but of course Brighton doesn't have anything over farther.  He's run over two miles previously but only on soft ground.  So tomorrow it'll be interesting to see him tackle two miles on fast ground.

I hope that Loving Pearl (who is pictured in the first photograph, following Roy up the Al Bahathri on Sunday morning ridden by Georgia Dobie, who will be on board on Thursday) will be less uncompetitive at Epsom than she has been on her two previous runs for the stable, at Newmarket and Yarmouth.  She's bred to stay well, so I hope that this race, the longest one she has yet contested, will help her to run better.  She still seems very young (and it's almost impossible to work out how on earth she was able twice to finish second over seven furlongs as a two-year-old!) but I hope that she can start coming to herself this week.  As always, we'll be wiser after the race.

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