Jef­frey Ross

An­war at­tempts to re­coup con­sid­er­able re­cent course and dis­tance loss­es in the Maid­en two year old Stakes over five fur­longs of Kemp­ton poly­track to­day un­der Richard Hugh­es; sev­en days ago Sean Lev­ey part­nered Richard Han­non's charge.

From stall one this Dark An­gel fil­ly adopt­ed front-run­ning tac­tics but was over­whelmed in the clos­ing stages by Mark John­ston-trained Rah Rah, pro­duce of Aus­tralian sire Lonhro, which stormed clear in the last fur­long to win by about four lengths.

On the time-hand­i­cap Rah Rah is al­ready a Roy­al As­cot prospect, wise­ly Lev­ey didn't per­sist when the cause soon be­came hope­less; un­less there is an­oth­er 'mys­tery' among four ri­vals An­war should win but

Fol­low­ing a long, cold, win­ter, dur­ing which one suf­fered a dev­il­ish chest in­fec­tion, it's ab­solute­ly won­der­ful to have come out the oth­er side and be analysing ju­ve­nile form again; hope­ful­ly you will ap­pre­ci­ate my ef­forts dur­ing the next sev­en months or so, af­ter all it is my forte and 'spe­cial­i­ty!'

'John­no' won all three two year old races on the open­ing day and, of course, every run­ner he fields will be sub­ject of close scruti­ny with great ex­pec­ta­tion; how does Ham­dan Al Mak­toum-owned Tawakkol com­pare with Rah Rah?

The pre-race mar­ket should be in­ter­est­ing, in­for­ma­tive and in­deed fas­ci­nat­ing.

At first glance Queen Catrine looks a 'cert' for the list­ed Snow­drop Fil­lies' Stakes over a mile but fit­ness, form and well-be­ing are at is­sue right now; thor­ough­breds, es­pe­cial­ly fil­lies, are like flow­ers and with so much ex­treme­ly cold, un­pleas­ant, weath­er few are thriv­ing.

We'll look else­where with each-way in mind and three places on of­fer, Mar­co Bot­ti-trained La­dy Dutch was a ready win­ner just over five weeks ago, his yard re­mains in form and that win­ning TH mark stands up to close in­spec­tion.

Pea­cock is one of five 'decs' for the Con­di­tions Stakes over a mile and Richard Han­non will be dis­ap­point­ed with any­thing less than em­phat­ic, de­ci­sive vic­to­ry be­cause this thrice-raced Pa­co Boy colt, owned by The Queen, is on the 2000 Guineas radar. don't op­pose!

Se­lec­tions

1.40 An­war (nap)

2.50 La­dy Dutch (e.w)

4.35 Pea­cock