Jessica Harrington© Photo Healy Racing
Our English 1000 Guineas hope, Millisle will leave in our lorry for Newmarket at lunchtime Friday. My son-in-law Richie Galway will do the driving. I have people there to look after her once she arrives so I don’t have to send any of my own staff. Being out of action for two weeks in quarantine on their return isn’t worth it.
From there, I just had to hand her over. It is difficult but it is not the end of the world. We must do what they ask of us to get racing back. It is better off to have racing like this than no racing. I think everybody agrees with that.
Millisle is in great form. She is a very simple, easy filly to train. Last year, she never actually even worked with anything. She is straightforward. She is well-travelled too which is a help because she has been to Salisbury and Down Royal and Newmarket, where she won and handled the track. She seems to have taken all the travelling in her stride.
The only danger I can see is she might be a fresh filly going there. But she has been to the Curragh a couple of times since we got the go ahead to do that. She is as good as we can get her.
Everybody has got ideas about whether she will stay a mile. My take on that is if you look at the Cheveley Park last year, the only thing she was doing was staying on. 100 yards or 50 yards down you are thinking, ‘She is only going to be third if I am lucky.’ She found a change of gear up the hill and ran right through the line.
We were delighted to get OisÃn Murphy to take the ride. When Shane Foley wasn’t able to go due to the quarantine — with racing every day here, we definitely couldn’t afford that - I needed to get the best jockey I could. It is sad for Shane. We have a fancied horse in the Guineas and he can’t go over to ride her, having ridden her in all her races.
I be sitting on the edge of my seat, anxious as usual and hoping for the best and I’m sure Shane will be the same. It’s great to have a runner with a live chance however.
The next day we will be up and running in Ireland and that is great for everyone. We think we have a nice bunch of two-year-olds again this year, though you’re always scared to say that, especially with how well we did last year.
Of the three-year-olds, Cayenne Pepper will reappear in an Oaks trial. I will be keeping Albigna and Alpine Star apart, with one going for the Irish 1000 Guineas and another bound for Ascot. Valeria Messalina is another going for the Guineas however.
It will be all action in the first month but then it will sort itself out and everything will slot into place as it usually does, the only difference being it is a little later. We can’t wait.
