The Harry Bentley column: Aiming for gold with Silver Quartz

It has been a quiet week for me and there is a real end of term feeling now the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe has been run.

Obviously there is Qipco British Champions Day coming up in a fortnight, but on Friday there were two Flat meetings – Ascot and Chelmsford - and that makes the landscape very competitive for jockeys.

I’ve got four rides at Newmarket on Saturday and it is interesting to see that Hugo Palmer’s Silver Quartz is vying for favouritism in the 1st Security Solutions EBF Stallions Novice Stakes.

The grey colt is by Frankel, out of Rosamixa, so is well bred. I’ve never ridden the horse so we’ll just have the see.

Scenery will need to step up is he is to land the lucrative Tattersalls October Auction Stakes, which has a pot of £150,000. These sales races are a great concept, and when you’ve got £81,165 for first place it is no surprise there is a big field.

Being a 30-runner juvenile race on the Rowley Mile it is hard to pick out the winner, and an element of luck is certainly needed.

The way the race works is that each horse has to have been sold at Tattersalls Yearling Sales and receives allowances for the amount they were sold for.

Scenery went for 14,000gns, so gets a 6lb concession. The fact I can do 8st 5lb is a big help in these races, and that’s why I’m on Eve Johnson-Houghton’s colt off 8st 7lb.

He was a decent third last time at Ascot, where he went on the soft ground, so there will be no ground concerns. The winner that day, Speak In Colours, is well thought of by the Marco Botti team and hopefully we can finish in the money.

Neshmeya ran the best race of her career last time when third to Empress Ali at Nottingham and encountered a fair bit of trouble in running. We are stepping up in class in the British EBF Breeders’ Fillies Middle Distance Handicap and we’ll have to make another step up in order to be competitive.

My final ride of the day is Elysian Fields in the EBF Breders’ Fillies’ Series #ThisFillyCan Handicap.

She is only 2lb higher than when winning the race last season and her run behind Ajman Princess in the Listed Warwick Stakes this season at Goodwood is an interesting piece of form. To be fair she finished five lengths adrift, but Ajman Princess is now a Group One winner and Dubka, who was in behind, has run well at Group Three level.

She has not backed up that performance in any of her three runs since then, however, but at least showed off a big weight last time that she still has plenty of ability. Hopefully, she can repeat what she did 12 months ago.

Thrave is one to follow:

As I said, it has been a quiet week but one definitely highlight was the win aboard Henry Candy’s Thrave at Newmarket last Saturday.

He is out of Derby winner Sir Percy and was too good for Owen Burrows’ Elwazir and Aidan O’Brien’s Coat Of Arms, who was the Evens favourite.

He gave me a really good feel the first time I rode him on the July Course in August and he won really well the other day.

He is highly-regarded and I think they are going to put him away for the spring.

It was a bit tacky on the Rowley Mile, and he handled it fine so I think he should handle most going. I think he is a miler, at this stage of his career.

Right result for Nicola Currie:

It was good to see that common sense prevailed in the Nicola Currie case.

She won her appeal this week against a ten-day suspension for failing to take all reasonable and permissible measures to obtain the best position on Tojosimbre.

It is good to know that appeals can be turned over in certain circumstances.

On reflection, I think the entry point for this, which is ten days, possibly needs readdressing.