Sunshine after the rain

We're now back to the very warm dry conditions, with just a hint of greenness in the parched grass to show for the couple of days of showers. The sight of Luca Cumani's string approaching us across the Fordham Road at the start of yesterday gives as good an impression of the lovely summer weather as anything I can say about it, with just the one puddle on the ground remaining to remind us that the two preceding days had been wet ones. The west side of the country, which we saw when we went to Chepstow, is significantly greener than it is over here, which usually seems to be the case in the summer, but at least we've had a freshen-up after the rainfall, even if fast ground will surely continue to be the order of the day.

We're told that it is 'good to firm, good in places' at Doncaster and I will get the chance to assess the accuracy of that over the next couple of days as I'll be there tomorrow evening (with Batgirl) and on Saturday afternoon (with First Pressing). Doncaster's ground used often to be very unimpressive, but under David Williams' management in recent years it was usually in very extremely good nick. David has, though, now moved on, and the reports of the ground at the Lincoln meeting were not positive. Even so, the official going description certainly contains no obvious causes for concern, so let's hope that the standards which David instigated are still being maintained in his absence. The two fillies (pictured cantering up Long Hill yesterday, with Hugh in front on Batgirl and Hannah behind him on First Pressing, whom she will ride in the race) are both well so let's hope for two good runs. I would imagine that Batgirl will go off close to favourite, while First Pressing is likely to start at significantly longer odds, never having been placed and not having run for nearly a year. Understandably, Frankie Dettori will be at Epsom, where his 1,000 Guineas winner Blue Bunting is set to start favourite in the Oaks, rather than Doncaster tomorrow so he won't be able to try for a hat-trick of Batgirl victories. Pat Cosgrave (pictured, pale cap, earlier this spring in the string of James Fanshawe, his principal patron) will deputize, which is grand as he's a very good jockey. And a local one too, so it's good to be using him.

There has nearly been a winner come from this property this week. Dave Morris suffered the frustration of a short-head defeat at Yarmouth on Tuesday evening with Zaheeb, a 28/1 shot who was touched off by the the William Haggas-trained Dubawi filly Dubawi Dancer, who had been backed from, apparently, 5/2 to 8/11 - "as if defeat was out of the question", according to the Racing Post. What would have made this considerably more frustrating for Dave was that Zaheeb's rider apparently dropped his reins in the final furlong (when the horse was still in front). As the pair finished eight lengths clear of the remainder, the final salt will probably be rubbed into the wound next Tuesday when Dave finds out how much Zaheeb (who, like Dubawi Dancer, was running in his first handicap after three unplaced runs in maiden races) has been raised in the ratings for this defeat. Dave has done well to get Zaheeb to this level so quickly, having bought him out of Mick Channon's stable last autumn for only 800 gns after the horse had been tailed off on his only outing. He didn't actually show much in his first two races for Dave (before the first of which he is seen being led around the parade ring by Hugh, who was kind enough to give Dave a hand when we were at Yarmouth on Easter Monday) but he clearly learned a lot from them; and he was probably unfortunate on Tuesday to go down to a filly even better handicapped than he was, finding the concession of 7lb (less the apprentice's allowance) just too much to a filly whose 45-rating seemed generally to be considered far too low. And if Dave was struggling to see the funny side of things, I am sure the fact that Dubawi Dancer had been ridden in all her previous starts by Simon Whitworth would not have helped his humour at all! Still, it's nice that Zaheeb has found his form, because I think that Dave is only training three horses at present, so it is good to see that one of them is clearly capable of winning. And I am always pleased to see William Haggas' hard-working jockey Liam Jones (pictured) ride a winner.