Mixed Bag at Best

The weekend wasn't as we had hoped.

First the good news. Venetian Harbor ran exceptionally well off the 2 month lay-off cutting all the fractions in the Fantasy Stakes. She wasn’t quite good enough Friday finishing 2nd of 14 being overtaken in the late stretch by Swiss Sky Diver. There was no shame in her performance and a nice purse for second place. She also gained points to qualify for the Kentucky Oaks and is all but certain for that race on September 4th. There are numerous nice targets for her as racecourses start to open including the Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks and the Grade 1 Acorn Stakes at Belmont.

Sadly Just for One Day stopped at the top of the stretch after leading the way for the early part of the race. No excuses on the day and we expected much more. We will move her back to a turf sprint which she won on last time out. We thought we had more of a horse with him.

Highland Yard bred Anneau d’Or is a very nice racehorse and ran hard to finish 5th in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby. He is, however, not good enough to tackle the best in the country and win. I would assume the owners will take him off the Derby Trail and find some softer company to run against. He will win plenty of races at the right level.

Very much looking forward to our Irish runners to make appearances as restrictions are lifted in coming weeks. Princess Yaiza is training like a very good racehorse and hopefully can mimic her accomplishment at Longchamp as a 3 year old.