Last week was an incredibly frustrating one for the team at Ross Burdon Racing, with both Mesaafi and Seventy both suffering near misses in their attempts to back up their recent wins. Read his latest thoughts ahead of a busy Monday of racing.
Ross Burdon Racing: June 29th 2026
The week started at Windsor, which has become a happy hunting ground this summer, although on this occasion lady luck chose to desert us, with Mesaafi repeatedly meeting traffic and being stopped in his run several times before finding daylight all too late where he ran on to be beaten less than a length with Jack Mitchell never managing to even ask Mesaafi to go and win his race.
After being outpaced early over the same course and distance three weeks earlier, before staying on strongly to run down the leaders, Mesaafi this time travelled up very well just behind the leaders but, when jack wanted to unleash him with a run he had the door closed on him not once or twice, but three separate times.
His fantastic owners all had a great evening and Mesaafi showed he’s still in superb form, but whether he will now get into his main mid-season target, a five furlong heritage handicap he finished a close third in last year, is debatable as he probably needed to go up slightly in the weights to be guaranteed a start there next month.
Ross Burdon Racing: Super Seventy
On Friday evening we were back on Newmarket’s gorgeous July course with Seventy, who has been a model of consistency for the whole of 2026. We were carrying a penalty for his win the previous Monday at Windsor but I still felt he had enough untapped potential that the extra pound we carried compared to his official handicap mark wouldn’t be an issue.
In reality, it probably was, as Seventy was beaten by the shortest of margins in an agonising photo finish in what could well be his last run for us. Next week Seventy will head to the July sale at Tattersalls and could leave Sackville House Stables with a remarkable record of three wins, two seconds and two thirds from just nine runs for us, only finishing outside the first three on his first two starts for us.
Ross Burdon Racing: Week Ahead
Our week looking forward starts off extremely busy, saddling three runners in one day for the first time on Monday evening, spread across Kempton Park and Windsor. Director’s Cut makes his first start for us at Kempton, dropping in trip back to the mile he won over when trained by John and Thady Gosden. His work has been satisfactory since his arrival but does give the impression he saves a little for himself and that is mind may be elsewhere at times.
Because of this we have fitted cheekpieces for him to help him concentrate and, when Jack rode him work in them he was adamant they were a big help in that regard. Ultimately I think we will end up gelding him while the ground is still firm and wait for some autumn ground with him as he will definitely appreciate some moisture in the ground.
Ross Burdon Racing: Royal Windsor
At Windsor we saddle two runners for Stable Silks Investments, a group of owners who have been with us since last summer and are great supporters of the yard. Just King High again showed plenty of early dash when fifth here last Monday and we are dropping him back to the minimum trip for the first time since his two year old days.
Even though he has been placed at seven furlongs I don’t think he will be inconvenienced by the drop back to five furlongs and should be doing his best work late on. In the last race of the evening Northcliff has his second run for the team when contesting the six furlong handicap to close the card.
Cliff, as he’s affectionately known, ran well when fourth on his first start for the yard in a race that is already looking to be string form with the winner winning again this week from an 8lb higher mark and the third, who was only a whisker in front of us, finishing second back at Newmarket this past Thursday. On his old form Northcliff is dangerously handicapped and if he can register another win we can look at loftier targets for him before the end of the summer.
Understandably the rest of the week is much quieter than Monday, Beauty Generation will go to Nottingham on Thursday afternoon and on Sunday Dust Cover may return to the all-weather, although if he does he will have to go without my assistance, as we are hosting our annual owners summer party on Sunday afternoon, which was a great success last year and we hope will be again this year.
By Ross Burdon
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