Busy week

I have had a busy week working for Racing TV at Carlisle on Monday, Pontefract on Wednesday and I am due to be at Thirsk on Friday and Haydock on Saturday. I have continued to work on One Jump Ahead, too, and next week I will be concentrating on the York Ebor Festival Update. If you haven't ordered a copy of the Update, which is priced at £6.00, please go to the Publications section of the site.

Having backed Dubai Warrior ante-post for the Epsom Derby during the winter, it was therefore disappointing that John Gosden's colt didn't make his reappearance until early August. However, that was the case with the son of Dansili turning up at Kempton on Wednesday evening in a mile novice event. A four and a half lengths winner on his racecourse bow at Chelmsford last November, he repeated the dose under a penalty at the Sunbury track under Robert Havlin. Taking over with a couple of furlongs to run, Dubai Warrior powered away from his twelve rivals to win easily. Significantly, on the same day, the champion trainer entered him in the Group 1 QEII and Champion Stakes at Ascot on Saturday 19th October. All being well, he will make up for lost time between now and the end of the season and beyond.

I thought the Roger Varian trained Khabeerah ran a race full of promise finishing third in the same event. A beautifully bred filly by Dubawi, she is out of the stable's Listed winner and Group 1 placed Hadaatha and is held in high regard at Carlburg Stables. Making her belated debut, she showed signs of greenness before staying on well. Beaten six and a half lengths behind Dubai Warrior, she won't always have the misfortune to bump into such a talented rival and ought to be hard to beat in a similar event, especially one confined to her own sex.