The face of Ross Burdon Racing is back from a fruitful trip to Ascot with Mesaafi going close in Saturday’s £100,000 race. Read his thoughts on some new additions to the yard, ahead of an exciting
Ross Burdon Racing: Marvellous Mesaafi Sparkles at Ascot, July 14th 2025
It is fair to say I’m starting to enjoy my visits to Ascot! Mesaafi ran another huge race on their straight course, finishing a fine third in the 5f Heritage Handicap, on Saturday. I thought the pace in the race would be a lot stronger than it was, and Mesaafi was able to sit just behind the early leaders and track them into the race, staying on well all the way to the line and only being beaten by two heads.
Ross Burdon Racing: Mighty Mesaafi
It was a superb run, as he was running from a mark 10lb higher than when second on the same track in May over six furlongs when just being ran down close home by Northcliff. Having a horse like him in the yard is huge for us, as he’s now proved he can mix it in these top handicaps and should he win one it would really highlight us positively.
There are plenty options open to him now, he could go back to Ascot in two weeks for a race with identical conditions to Saturday’s or we could go to York over 6f on the same day. As well as these there are valuable pots in the Racing League and Shergar Cup meeting we could aim at, though my main target for him, weather permitting, will be the Portland handicap at Doncaster’s St Leger meeting.
Ross Burdon Racing: Dust Cover
This evening we have Dust Cover making his first start for the yard in the one mile novice race at Windsor. Having arrived in early June he is now ready to go to the races, although he is still very much a baby and will improve massively for the experience around a unique track like Windsor. John and Thady Gosden train the favourite, Competizione, who should prove very difficult to beat having contested the Britannia Stakes at Royal Ascot on his last start and holding an official rating of 90.
If we can run a promising race and gain some valuable experience today I will be very happy as Dust Cover should only improve with racing as he is such an immature horse mentally. The rest of the week will be relatively quiet, Ernie’s Valentine will run at Newmarket on Friday evening but he will be our only other runner this week.
Ross Burdon Racing: Chelmsford Bound
He returns to turf after making his last two starts at Chelmsford, but with so few options on the all weather available to him at this time of year we decided we would give him another chance back on grass. He has comew out of his last run in good form and hopefully he can continue his progress having improved with each run he has had for us.
Ross Burdon Racing: Hopes For High
On a hugely positive note for us as a yard, we gained another new horse to the yard this week in High Point, a New Bay gelding previously trained by Kevin Philippart de Foy and Eve Johnson Houghton before that. High Point won three races whilst with Eve and has only ran three times for Kevin, never getting the chance to run on his favoured soft ground since being bought at last years October Horses in Training sale.
He comes to us after a short holiday and will be trained very much with an autumn campaign in mind where he should get the ground he appreciates. From a personal point of view its superb that, despite only beginning training in April, people are already putting their trust into us to train for them and believe in what we are doing and share our ambitions.
By Ross Burdon
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