A major blow yesterday when Mon Michel coughed and later returned a bad blood test after his final piece of work for the Totesport Trophy. Everything up to this point had gone right and I thought he had a major chance of picking up the prize, but it wasn’t to be.
He won’t be out for long but it is a real blow – it’s very similar to what happened to Winker late last year when he picked up an injury in his last piece of work before the Middle Park. I was cursing my luck to Tom Goff – Tom said it’s the sort of thing that happens a lot and it happens more to the good horses as they push themselves to their limits whereas bad horses generally run well within themselves.
MM may go for the Imperial Cup now with a possible Cheltenham tilt as well – if he goes this path he will be competing with Prince Ary, who is back from an operation and David Pipe wants to try for the double with him.
We sold Ollie Fliptrick for 5.5k guineas at Tattersalls today. I also tried to sell Shepherd’s Warning in the sale but I put in a reserve and got her back. I’m perfectly happy with that – she may not be the best looking but she’s got a good attitude. We’ll keep on running her in low grade races and she should win more.
Nick runs Russian Around tomorrow and I think he’ll run well.
I met up with the CEO of Silverjet yesterday and had a good chat – nice guy, very bright and energetic but looking a bit beaten up with his company’s share price under pressure. He has a very entrepreneurial history and indications are that he (alongside his team) has built a top class operation that I have only ever heard good things about. It’s one thing to be a star when the wind is at your back but performing well when it’s in your face is a different matter. I hope this turns around as I think they are deserving.
I also had a good long chat with a big name in airline analysis, described to me as “a bit of a guru”. He was interested in SIL and had been following them from out of intellectual interest (he was not required to cover them). He didn’t have a strong view on the company’s value and long term viability as he didn’t have enough data to work with, but his gut feel was that the business model was sound – he was a lot less positive on the low cost carriers which he felt had difficult times ahead.