After a fantastic meal in the owners pavilion and a chat with Stuart about Wotasparkler on Monday and trying unsuccessfully to probe him about where MacDillon was going to race on Saturday (he did mention that Frankie no less wanted to ride him at York,) I asked Stuart about our boy's chances on a fine Tuesday evening. Stuart felt that Secret Night was the obvious danger following his second on the Victoria Cup. He said that Muffin had been working well and was in good form.

We met back up in the parade ring where we were introduced to our very well mannered Jockey Louis-Phillipe who to me looked all of 13 years old. The idea was to pop Muffin out from our okay draw and get on the tail of the leader. We wished him well before Stuart gave him a leg up on Muffin who was nicely on his toes in the ring.

Off we went to the stand to watch the race unfold......

The first 4 furlongs went according to plan with Muffin handily placed disputing 3rd on the trail of the two leaders. Coming around the bend with 2 furlongs to go Louis-Phillipe started to get to work and decided to switch inside with one and a half furlongs to go and went for a gap between 2 horses that failed to materialise. Once opened up about a furlong out he was faced with the backside of the eventual second place and frustratingly couldn't go anywhere.

I think it\'s safe to say that he had more in his tank on the basis that Louis-Phillipe only gave him a crack with the whip once but it was pointless to give him more as he couldn't get anywhere.

Muffin eventually finished 6th in a tight finish just over 2 lengths behind the winner by a 4 yo horse clearly on the upgrade rated 86.

On his return the first thing Louis-Phillipe said was"'I couldn't get a run."' He said that Muffin had plenty more in his tank but couldn't be used due to the wall of horses. To back this up Muffin was not breathing heavily in stark contrast to the winner who had pulled up next to us who was breathing extremely heavily.

Stuart took comfort in this and I think it appeased his worries from Muffin's disappointing last run. The general consensus was that Muffin was still holding his own in this class of race and his time would come again.

Andy