NEWS

Far Rockaway (Frankel x Darinza) is Declared For the Extra Places At totesport.com Novice Stakes 1m2f (Plus 10 Race) (Class 4) (2yo) 3.25pm at Chelmsford tomorrow afternoon and the vibes are good. Drawn in stall 7, we are looking for Far Rockaway to build on her promising debut when she stayed on well over 7f to finish 5th at the same venue. The filly will wear the hood again to keep her settled but the step up to 1m2f will certainly help and both William Haggas and I think she will appreciate the test. There were options to go over a mile, but we feel the trip will get the best out of her at this stage and she is sure to get further in time. The race is very competitive which you would expect at this time of year with so many trainers looking to get there later 2yo's out for experience and owner breeders like ourselves looking for a 2yo win for our pedigrees. We expect her to go very close! Tom Marquand kindly takes the ride again which is another plus being he rode the filly first timeout, besides being one of the rising stars of the weighing room.

Perfect Crown Won very well at Chelmsford (Bet At totesport.com Novice Median Auction Stakes 4.25pm) over 7f yesterday evening. Owned by Sheikh Hamed Dalmook Al Maktoum and trained by Archie Watson the colt is a half brother to our very own Absolute Blast, providing a nice update to her page. The manner in which Perfect Crown won was taking. He was a little keen early from stall 12 but Hollie Doyle got him settled before sitting upside in front. The Result was never in doubt once the field straightened for home and Perfect Crown won by an impressive 8 lengths giving the impression there is more to come from the colt and more results to enhance Absolute Blast page, she has a lovely Showcasing Filly and is in foal to the mighty Frankel so there are exciting times a head. Everyone at AppleTree would also like to offer our congratulations to Hollie on a fantastic year reaching 100 winners, very well done

Far Rockaway made a pleasing debut last night at Chelmsford City in the Extra totesport.com Fillies' Novice Stakes (class 4) over 7f. She took the preliminaries very well and moved to post nicely. Although slowly away, she ran green, running in snatches on and off the bridle. The penny began to drop turning in where Far Rockaway made up ground going forward to finish a pleasing 5th. She was given a lovely ride by Tom Marquand letting her take time to find her feet, Far Rockaway will benefit greatly from Tom's handling. Having spoken to William Haggas after the race we feel it would be nice try and win at 2, providing Mr. Gosden lets us with his vast amount of very well bred 2yo's running at this time of year. We expect to see her back out in 2-3 weeks so continue to check the website for up dates on Far Rockaway and our other exciting prospects.

It seems a poignant day to announce that Three Weeks (Tapit x Midnight Thoughts) will be trained by Doug Watson in Dubai, after such an amazing performance at Meydan by the trainer. 6 winners from six runners with 5 of them ridden by Pat Dobbs and 1 winner ridden by Dane O'Neil. It was on the advice of Dave O'Meara a few weeks ago that we take the horse out there to be trained by Doug Watson as he is very surface dependent, also the decent prize money was a factor. It is clear that Three Weeks is a better horse round the likes of Southwell and being rated 90 (a High of 93) there just aren't the races for him in the UK. The plan is to run him on the dirt and see how far he can go, maybe even obtain some Black Type for our foundation mare Midnight Thoughts. Three Weeks is the first horse to be trained abroad for AppleTree Stud so it is very exciting prospect and hopefully a few trips to Dubai will be on the cards.

Far Rockaway runs tomorrow night at Chelmsford in the Extra Places At totesport.com Fillies' Novice Stakes (Plus 10) Class 4, over 7f, 5.55pm. It will be great to see her on a race course for the first time as she has been a difficult filly to judge. She has always moved well but there has been very little of her. Because of this we always thought she would take time to come to hand. Far Rockaway has shown vast improvement over the last move or so and is a credit to William Haggas getting her out to run as a 2yo. She is sure to improve for the run but being drawn 5 is in her favor although she will need some luck with the 16 runners. We'll have to let the markets provide a guide to what is expect as they rarely seem to get it wrong.