The turf season may already be underway but if the race-planning at the start of the season isn't mystifying enough, then the continuing grotty weather has ensured that there's little racing on grass to be seen anywhere.
So, Roy Rocket is out again later on the Kempton all-weather while we wait for Brighton to open its doors, and he's really been the only one out and about during these winter months for this yard. However, plenty of his stablemates are gearing up to make their seasonal debuts behind the scenes.
One who will be making his career debut, hopefully in the Woodditton Stakes on Thursday, 19 April, is Das Kapital, a tall, scopey son of Cityscape who is ready to take his first steps on the racecourse in the jazzy news silks of his owners The Geezers. He should be a nice staying prospect for the future.
The plan is for Hope Is High, seen here performing a synchronised gallop with White Valiant this morning on Racecourse Side, to resume at Salisbury on Monday, 30 April in a fillies' handicap. She's in good form and appears to have strengthened again since last year so we're very much hoping that she can continue to be as consistent as she was last year.
White Valiant has won two bumpers and ran over hurdles last year but he is likely to be aimed at a reappearance on the Flat before he returns to hurdling. He had a nasty cut to his hock last autumn which held him up for while but he's now in fine fettle and is maturing well.
Tony Fordham's very exciting Kryptos is also nearing a comeback and though no particular target has been decided upon as yet, we're all eagerly anticipating his return within the next month or so.
Sussex Girl signed off her season with two wins in a week and she is in similarly bouncy form now she's back in strong work. There's not much of her but she has grown a bit through the winter and is probably the most forward in her coat of all our horses. Let's hope she can continue to improve for her owner Dan Tunmore as she did last season.
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