George gets us back on the board

George ran a nice third at Fontainebleau this past Wednesday, just missing second by a nose. There are a number of good things about this: He finished his race very well, showing a spark we hadn’t seen since last year; he beat horses from the Big Boys – nice to see Kay’s silks finish in front of TWO of Khalid Abdudullah’s horses, including some other big names, and  he won enough to tip him over the magic 3,000 euro mark, so now he has a wider choice of races. His next target with either be the 1,600-meter handicap at Longchamp on the eve of the Arc or a 1,300-meter straight-line run on the Monday after the Arc in Maisons-Laffitte. He may not make the cut for Longchamp, because he’s only rated 27, but if he does he will be well-placed near the bottom weights of the second division. If not, he’ll run here in Maisons-Laffitte instead. He does seem to have turned a corner for the better.

Brazil, meanwhile, will have another chance at redemption on Wednesday, although in her defense it’s not much of a chance. She’s entered in a 2,000-meter claiming race for lady jockeys. The race is too long, but because she is still below the 3,000-euro cut-off, I have to take what I can get. She needs racing, and at this point I’m ready to try anything. I won’t use blinkers this time (wouldn’t be fair at that distance), but my hope is to stretch her out to this, see how she handles it, then bring her back to a mile, maybe with blinkers, to see if she can do something. I do think she was in season at Evreux and seems not to be now, so at least we’ve got that going for us. She will work tomorrow in preparation. Who knows?