A very busy week past and another one ahead for the yard. Down at Lingfield Staffa gave Michael Pitt his first racetrack experience with a spin around the five furlongs - hanging left from the stalls but then getting into gear around the tight bend and finishing off her race well enough to be beaten only nine lengths. Connaught Ranger ran on the same card and Charlie Bishop felt he got a little tired at the end of a mile, in his bid to restore full race fitness. At the same track but on the turf two days later Lily Of Year never really got into her seven furlong race and finished well back - she is still finding her great flashes of promise don't come together on course. The 11mm overnight rain put an end to the hopes of Keeper's 12 at the first Newbury evening meeting, and Keeper's Choice never travelled on dead ground for Oisin Murphy, beaten nearly eight lengths from near the top of the weights and the market. Hors De Combat showed his full and frustrating repertoire of mental eccentricity on ideal ground at Salisbury, stubborn to the start, almost pulling himself up during the race, and then finishing like a rocket to seize third place - thanks only to Oisin's perseverance and understanding of the talented gelding. With a straightforward mindset he would have been able to achieve a facile win in the contest ! In her race at Leicester Vanity Vanity missed the break and gave the others a ten length start, so once David Probert had brought her up to the field she was bound to tire in the closing stages and she finished well behind. On the July course at Newmarket there was no pace in the race and Sweet Charity pulled very hard and then did not relish a sprint to the line which ensued, so she will now probably now revert to a mile, hoping to come off a faster run race.