Seventh heaven for Chookie?
Keith Dalgleish has never tried Chookie Dunedin at seven furlongs and today’s first go at Musselburgh looks promising.
The Carluke-based threeyear-old has a victory on his CV, a six-furlong novice event at Ayr last May, when keeping on at the finish. That was enough to tempt his in-form trainer to try the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot where, after being hampered, he was beaten five lengths.
Jockey Joe Fanning rides Musselburgh better than any other rider and, from stall five, can get a position before the early first bend. Newmarket raider Ocelot has been struggling with the handicapper since winning a five-furlong sprint at Sandown last July.
That was off a mark of 72, when he slammed his rivals by three-and-a-half lengths in a Class 4 handicap. Today he is back to 73.
He is in a Class 5 at the East Lothian track and, although box 2 is a negative, trainer Robert Cowell has booked Danny Tudhope. Mick Easterby’s Miss Sheridan can be forgiven her last two defeats, on unsuitably soft ground, but before that she won twice in July.
She competes over a mile today off a rating of 72, which should be workable, given that the filly won off 74 at Carlisle last June.