Two Year Old Talk From Julia Feilden

Italia - Brocklesby Hope

The yearlings are now two-year olds and it won't be long before they can hit the track in April. Although most of them won't be early enough to run over five furlongs, they are all going well and get you dreaming of what could be in the season ahead. Captain Navarre is a lovely big colt and he is taking all his work with ease. He has a great attitude and leads all the others up the heath. Although Duke of Diamonds came to us a bit later than the others, he has quickly caught up and might be a bit sharper than his pedigree suggests. He is quite a nervous little man but does his exercise easily enough and it will be interesting to see what he's got when the youngsters start to up their workload in a month or so time.

Celestine Abbey looks likely to be the earliest runner of the group as she seems to be very speedy and doesn't bat an eyelid at anything thrown at her. She isn't the biggest but early two-year olds aren't usually so I expect her to be heading to the races in the not too distant future.

Mercy Me and Celestine have been together with us since they were foals and they are still very good friends even now. Mercy is a lot bigger though and probably will need a bit further distance to run over but she still moves powerfully up the canter. She has a few quirks but they seem to disappear in her faster paces so I hope it won't be a problem when she goes racing.

I was hoping Italia could be a possibility for the Brocklesby, the year's first two-year old race, but she had to have a month off due to lameness and that has set her back a bit. She is cantering again now and seems to have gotten over her problems. Even if she doesn't make that race, there are plenty of other chances for her to shine early in the season. I think her sire, Zebidee, will be a rich source of precocious juveniles and I'll be fascinated to see what his first crop can do on the track.