Martin Dixon of ownership group The Horse Watchers reveals the latest changes to the team following the Newmarket July Sale.
New recruits
Hostility
Hostility is a well-bred horse. A good-looking sort who's not overly big but is athletic. He has some eye-catching maiden form in Ireland, including finishing fourth behind Delacroix on debut, showing plenty of ability straight away.
He's probably been a bit frustrating in that he's been beaten at short prices a couple of time this year. However, one of those runs was first time out when he finished second to Admiral Churchill of Paddy Twomey's, and that's a strong piece of form with the winner having followed up and run to quite a high level.
A few of his bits of maiden form catch the eye and he's only ever run over seven furlongs, but we've got the impression on a few occasions that he'll be effective over further, so that's an avenue we'll be looking at. He's gone to David [O'Meara] who has a good record at sweetening these horses up and getting them on the right path.
Latona
Latona is a low-rated filly but has a nice pedigree as she's a sister to Canary Row who improved with age and was an older mare when she won in listed company. She often travels well but has maybe flattered to deceive a few times, but she's got competitive and has never really been completely disgraced. Even on her most recent run, when they dropped her to six furlongs, she went quite strongly through the race and then when she was coming with her effort she got caught up in a bit of trouble and the leaders quickened away from her.
She often gives the impression there's a bit more in the tank and she's dropped from a rating of 60 to 50. We thought there were three or four times when she's run quite well with excuses, yet the handicap mark has come down to the basement level. It opens the door for her to initially run in some very low-class races, which is a good starting point for her.
We feel like she's on a competitive rating and maybe we can get her on the right track and find a bit of consistency with her form. She might run on the turf in the back-end of the season as she has a pedigree to go very well on soft ground, but she'll be busy enough through the all-weather season. She'll be trained by Mick [Appleby].
Moonjid
Moonjid showed ability last year, finishing fourth in a decent maiden at Goodwood, and he started this season pretty promisingly when he travelled really strongly and caught the eye in a race at Sandown. He doesn't have consistency on his record, but we feel like there are a couple of runs which suggest there's more there. He's going to Mick.
He has dropped from his initial mark in the mid-70s to 68, so he's come down to what we consider a competitive rating. He'll be given a bit of break and has really been bought as an all-weather horse to start campaigning from October onwards.
Moving On
It wasn't an easy decision to let Penzance go. He was a fantastic horse that fit into the model of what we're trying to achieve, which is to buy horses, get them improving and winning prize-money to pay their way, and upgrade their value a bit. You can't do it with them all, but that's the starting aim. He improved his rating, won his prize money and upgraded his value. He's going to Shark Hanlon's yard and we wish the very best of luck to the new owners and hopefully he goes on and has a successful career with them.
Stella Hogan did well. She was bought as a short-term project and took her racing really well while we had her. Mick [Appleby] did a great job to get her improving.
It was unfortunate that over the last couple of years Westernesse had little injuries that kept him off the track for periods, but he's come back this year and has won for us and done well. As a handicapper at six years old he still had a reasonable resale and he's going to Donald McCain. I'd imagine you'll see him over jumps.
Heathen has had a really good 12-month period for us with David, who did a really good job with him. He's been a multiple winner for us and racked up plenty of prize-money this year and showed some strong form. He's gone to Alan O'Keeffe and Jennie Candlish.
Cymbidium has a nice pedigree, being out of a half-sister to Study of Man, and people have bought her for breeding, I believe.
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