Miss Cato improves again

Thursday, 24 May 2012

Good old Miss Cato.  She is really great.  She has really thrived on her racing, exceeded all expectations and has now won four races in 2012.  To be honest, with a bit of racing luck she would have been unbeaten in her six runs, but today was definitely the day when she proved that she has improved and loves her racing, winning under jockey Chris Catlin at Sandown.

Like Rae, Chris is not big on the small talk, but is completely reliable and doesn't make many mistakes.  We were delighted to provide him with this, his 1,000th winner, well done Chris.  He rode Miss Cato with care and restraint and with great confidence - although in an ideal world she would not have won so far!  So that's now 14 winners for the year, a fantastic start given we are not in June yet.  Miss Cato is pictured above working last Saturday with Border Abby.

Miliika breaks her maiden convincingly

Tuesday, 22 May 2012

Chris and Lesley Mills' homebred Miliika (Green Desert - Miss Anabaa) won this afternoon at Brighton with something in hand.  After a very promising first run where she just missed out, she came with a long smooth run on this idiosyncratic track to win under a hand ride from jockey Seb Sanders.  This is the third generation of this family Rae has trained, starting with her grand-dam, Midnight Shift, her Group 3 winning dam Miss Anabaa and now Miliika herself and it particularly rewarding to see the talent develop through the years.  As with all fillies Rae trains, the aim is to win and then get black type if possible, although after this win finding the right race for her next may be tricky due to lack of immediate options in the programme.

Anyway everyone in the yard is delighted for Chris and Lesley, their son Robbie who did the pre-training himself and Sunny who rides and looks after Miliika.  Congratulations!  Our 13th winner of the year.

Fantastic Frankel makes it 10

Saturday, 19 May 2012

It's not often this website features horses not trained by Rae Guest, but what an incredible horse Frankel is.  All credit and our congratulations go to trainer Henry Cecil who has prepared and managed him brilliantly and to Jane and all Henry's team at Warren Place.  The Lockinge today was a well prepared plan, well executed by Tom Queally and Ian Mongan on Bullet Train, his lead horse and pacemaker, with the minimum of fuss.  It brings a tear to the eye.  Amazing.

Catch up

Saturday, 19 May 2012

First apologies for the recent radio silence from the news section, Rae's had a busman's holiday at the Kentucky Derby, catching up with old friends like Peter Brette, who is the track rider for Derby favourite Union Rags and is best known as the rider of the ill fated Barbaro.  Years ago Peter was Rae's apprentice and he is now assistant trainer to Michael Matz and Rae met up with him on the back side of Churchill Downs.  Darley very kindly got us tickets for Derby day itself, which is a hoop-la like nothing we have seen in England and the race attracts a crowd of 158,000.  Rae also caught up with Wayne and Cathy Sweezey, the Lexington based consignors who did such a great job for Derek Willis and Rae on the sale of Serious Attitude and they were on great form.  A good trip.

In the meantime two horses in particular have shown some good racecourse form, first Chris and Lesley Mills' Miliika who was narrowly beaten first time out but what an excellent first run; and Colin Murfitt's Cuff Link was another to finish runner up under a not very inspired ride.  Ed De Gas found them all going a bit quick for him on the all weather at Lingfield and Flynn's Boy hated the kickback.

There are loads of entries next week so watch the entries section to see what's declared.

Ed De Gas shows his class at Catterick

Wednesday, 25 April 2012

Richard Pegum's Ed De Gas made it two wins from two runs in his colours at Catterick on Wednesday.  To be honest there is little to report about a winner like this.  It was all very straightforward.  The horse has learned to race now, he settled, got a nice lead, took it up when asked and went clear.  He won by 12 lengths (yes, 12 lengths!).  Chris Catlin is not prone to making too many mistakes and even if he had been, he would have had to have tried hard to get this one beat.  So, happily, we can report ytd 12 winners from 25 runners 48% strike rate. It also appears that of the 8 rides Chris has had for Rae ytd, 7 of them have won.  Amazing.