With the Grand National out of the way it's now the turn of the flat.
And that always gets a good start as the horses shake off the last of their winter coats and come to Newmarket for this meeting.
Wednesday sees the running of two G3s – The Earl of Sefton and the Nell Gwyn. The former is over 1800m with the going given a "good" tag and there are 10 going to post.
Godolphin's Ottoman Fleet wintered in Dubai and had quite a good season so comes into this on 5/2 for Appleby-Buick, He won this race last year. Royal Rhyme 11/4 and Embesto 10/3 are the main challengers but we have a roughie in The Foxes, who obviously did not enjoy his trip to Saudi so should be a happy horse at home – 12/1 for Balding-Probert.
The Nell Gwyn is for the 3yo fillies over 1400m and another Godolphin tops the call – Dance Sequence – for Appleby-Buick – is by Dubawi and unbeaten in her two starts to date including a c&d. She's on 4/7 which looks too short for us so we will watch with interest. Two daughters of No Nay Never come next in the market -Matrika from the Aidan O'Brien team with Ryan Moore riding, and True Cyan from Roger Varian's yard with James Doyle on board. They are on 10/3 and 7/1.
Good to see that I Am Maximus returned home safely to Leighlinbridge where he got a hero's welcome and a trip to the pub – or that's what it looked like with a large crowd finishing up at the Lord Bagenal. His trip home to the stables after that might have been a bit more adventurous.
