Unraced Three Year Olds on fire

The Unraced Three Year Olds feature on pages 124 to 127 of Ahead On The Flat has been in tremendous form in recent days. Alexana (10/11), Elasia (8/1), Play Mate (11/1) and Surya (5/4) have all won during the last six days. Elasia confirmed the promise she had shown on her debut at Haydock last month by winning the twelve furlongs novice event at Newcastle on Tuesday. Given time since her first outing, the daughter of Nathaniel was much more streetwise on this occasion and was well positioned throughout Andrea Atzeni. Pushed out for a length and a quarter success, she is a well bred filly from a family who improve with age. She looks set for a rosy future. Ironically, the runner-up Ben Vrackie is also featured on page 124 and it won't be long before he sheds his maiden tag. John Gosden's colt is by Frankel out of Group 1 winning mare Kinnaird and was bought for 450,000gns. Promising on his debut at Newbury twelve days earlier, he made good late headway at Gosforth Park and he ought to be hard to beat next time. He is a decent long term prospect who could win a good prize one day, probably in handicap company.

At lunchtime today I had the pleasure of interviewing Tom Lacey for the second consecutive year for One Jump Ahead. Tom enjoyed a breakthrough campaign last winter with a personal best 39 winners, including two at Aintree's Grand National meeting last spring. Blessed with some exciting youngsters, the 2018/2019 season threatens to be even better for the Herefordshire based handler. The stable bought around a dozen untried youngsters at the Tattersalls Derby Sale in June and, judging by Tom's comments, there are some potential very smart ones amongst them. He also passed on his opinion of those horses he sold during the spring/summer - largely winning English pointers trained by his wife Sophie. Last year's interview was an excellent addition to OJA and I will be surprised if this one is any different.