Sabine Crowe's 5 horses to watch this season

In a prior blog I did an interview with Sabine Crowe- travelling head lass at Declan Carroll's stable. These are the horse's Sabine would watch from his yard.

1) Jus Pires- He's believed to be well handicapped and a recent wind op has only accentuated his ability. The gelding has had 3 winners from 13 runs and numerous placings too. The majority of his best runs have come on all-weather but he's versatile.

2) Tweet Tweet- She's currently an unraced filly with an alleged fast turn of foot. Sabine says she's "lightning quick". There's a big hope with will translate on to the track. This two-year-old is still not had any entries as of yet. Maybe one to put in your tracker.

3) Trinity Lake- in the best fitness of his life. This full brother to Titus a Sky Bet handicap winner which Declan also trainer won first time out last season. But seemed to peter off, there's a belief that this will transform. The bay gelding likes good and soft ground so as of yet has run once and looked better for the run. I was impressed with the transformation I saw within the horse.

4) Sommer Katz- Undeniable form 2 wins and one second. The gelding has the official rating of 75 and there's hope that this will allow room for improvement. This Frank Gillespie owned bay has not yet been raced this year. But the turn of pace shown and the level of success suggests that this horse could be an interesting one this year.

5) Rock Sound- He's raring to go already building on his form from last season. The Lope De Vega gelding has great form since going to Declan's yard being placed in every run. It will be interesting to see if this all-weather form transfers onto the turf and see what the plan for this talented horse is.

An extra horse to watch is Music Seeker. This York winner is a favourite of Sabine's and he's in great form which was shown by his first run back this season being a narrow second. He has consistent form and always tries.

Additionally, Declan has an incredible strike rate with two-year-olds and any of these should not be discredited. Over the past five years on the turf with two-year-olds, he has a 15% strike rate. This is impressive considering the number of horses he has and they have gone on to win some big races. For example, Santry who won two competitive races at Doncaster and York and a close second at Ascot.

Royal Ascot Round up!

There were some amazing moments from Ascot this year. These are some of the most prominent in my opinion.

 Hollie Doyle her first Royal Ascot winner. She's made history by doing so being the 3rd ever female jockey to have a winner here. Hollie continues to break records and build on her success of last season mentioned in my prior blog which can be found here. She gave Scarlet Dragon a hell of a ride by weaving her way through the field and having a strong finish . Her strength significantly helped her. This followed the success of the day before of Hayler Turner who replicated last year again in the Sandringham Stake on the 33/1 Onassis for Charlie Fellows.

 Frankie Dettori and Ryan Moore have additionally made history having their 70th and 60th Royal Ascot winner. Also, Frankie has now won every single group one winner at Royal Ascot showing how much of an exceptional jockey he is. Frankie's 70th was on the penultimate day on Fanny Logan in the Hardwicke Stakes while Ryan's happened on Russian Emperor in the Hamton Court Stakes. They both rode well all week and these just show why they are two of the best jockeys in the country.

 Jim Crowley had six winners which is amazing in itself. These were all ridden exceptionally, he read the race well. These winners came from the outsider Motakhayyel, Battaash, Nazeef, Hukum, Molatham, Khaloosy. They were all owned by Hamdam Al Maktoum. He has a very impressive string of horses making it appear like they hadn't had any time off at all.

Battaash was one of Crowley's winners. I wasn't sure about this horse, it seemed like a big ask. The favourite made all and went on to win easily. His turn of pace has largely been exciting and we got to see this again. He went clear and won by 2 1/4 lengths.

The Queen had her first winner at Royal Ascot for FOUR years which is incredible. Tactical under James Doyle rode this winner in complete and utter style.

 John Gosden was one of my top trainers of all time and I wasn't wrong. He was this year leading trainer of Royal Ascot with six winners including Frankly Darling, Nazzef, Lord North, Stradivarius, Fanny Logan and Palace Pier. For me Stradivarius was one of the best wins of the entire meeting, winning in such ease by moving through the field and just accelerating away. He went on to win by 10 lengths making it his third Gold Cup win. Simply incredible.

Another surprise from the jockeys was Kevin Stott. He managed to ride a double on the final day in tremendous style. These came from Hello Youmzain and Hey Jonesy. This was a big day in his career and I'm sure he will just continue with this momentum.

 I could have mentioned so many more moments. What would be your best moment of the week?

My top 5 trainers of all time

With racing back and behind closed doors this will give you an insight into which trainers in the UK I think are the best and why. Here’s the top 5:

1) Sir Henry Cecil undoubtedly one of the best trainers of all time his death in 2013 had had a serious impact on racing. Some of the best horses he trained included Noble Mission, Frankel and Camacho. The ten-time champion trainer also had 25 UK classic wins under his belt. Despite some struggles personally and sometimes with the horses he never did badly in terms of racing.

2) John Gosden- his best trainer horses have often been mentioned before in other blogs like Stradivarius, enable, Nathaniel and roaring lion. He’s known for his straight-talking interviews and this year alone from 48 runners he’s already collected over £160,000 in prize money.  His worldwide success just adds to the 40 wins he’s had at royal ascot.

3) Mark Johnston- with an incredible string of horses that have had the very unlucky Dee Ex Bee, Sharmadal and Attraction. He is the most successful British flat trainer of all time with 4,194 winners in 2018. This total continues to rise. Additionally, last year he earnt over £5million in prize money.

4) Jimmy Fitzgerald- is perhaps one of the less known significant trainers but he is very much missed. His horses are most known for over the jumps where he saddled over 1,200 winners in his career. Forgive n’ Forget probably was the greatest for his trainer career. But the success was clear from the early stages of training when he had a winner with the second horse he ever trained.

5) Aidan O’Brien- has trained some of the biggest names in racing such as Henrythenavigator, Galileo and Camelot. He has a long list of credentials next to his name including Champion Irish National Hunt for six years running. In 2001 he was the England Champion trainer, the first Irishman to do this since 1971. O’Brien is also an 11-time Irish derby winning trainer and 8-time Irish 1000 Guineas winner. These make it near impossible to find a better trainer than him.

That’s my top trainers' list who would be on yours?

Interview with Karen McLintock

I was fortunate enough to bump into Karen McLintock at York, to discover the hard work and the dedication she has with her yard of 20 horses.

Karen has been involved in racing from a young age, having ponies and being involved in a pony club. This, like many people involved with the industry, started the racing bug. Leaving school she was involved in eventing, which progressed into her getting a horse which her partner Don Eddy convinced her take jumping. Call Equiname won first time out on Karen's local track, Musselburgh. The grey gelding was later sold to Paul Nicholls which enabled her to buy the land that she trains on now just outside Newcastle. She took over the training license from her partner Don Eddy in 2005.

Karen has had her sights set firmly on the Northumberland Plate for many years, if she had kept Call Equiname, she believes this is where he would have gone. This year she hopes to have a chance with Dubawi Fifty in the Northumberland Plate. Dubwai Fifty who has great form, second at Ascot last year, unfortunately picked up an injury and couldn't race. The tough race however is asking a lot from the horse first time back this season, but I wish her the best of luck.

Karen has a few horses to watch out for; Dubawi Fifty and others such as Weather Front who won 6 races last year and was placed numerous times who is returning from injury hopefully later this year. Additionally Karen has the filly Everkyllachy who is rising star with consistent form.

Thanks again to Karen for letting me have an interview. Hopefully there will be more interviews with various jockeys and trainers in coming weeks.