I HAVE been asked several times this week if Princess Zoe improved and I genuinely believe that she has, and she appears to be thriving, since she won her first Group 1 in France nearly three weeks ago.

She did her final bit of serious work here last Sunday. Joey Sheridan led the work on a nice horse that I think a bit of and Seamie rode Princess Zoe for the first time. They began to pick up the pace earlier than I expected, and she did plenty on what is deep sand.

Zoe did what I expected her to do and she quickened away from her work companion and it looked like a very good bit of work. Seamie was happy, said that she took no heave or blow and that she felt great.

But if I am honest, I thought they might have done a bit too much. I was a bit anxious afterwards and I left her alone in the paddock for a while and the real test would be the feed pot later on that night, and I can safely say that I haven’t been as happy to see a horse of mine took into her grub the way she did that night.

She is just an amazing mare and on Sunday night she assured me that all was good with her.

I see her every day, and you are always thinking is she losing condition, but when I took her out to canter on Monday and Tuesday, I had to do a bit more than I planned to do with her, as I thought she looked a bit heavy.

I don’t weigh them, and I am long enough looking at horses, to know whether they might need a bit more work. We never time the work – everything is done based on what I can see, and my father was the same. I am pretty sure that Willie, Aidan and Gordon will look at one in the morning after they pull out and decide what work the horses will do.

Best indicator

What they do after their work is the best indicator as to how they are and the feed pot can be, in a lot of cases, the real acid test – she didn’t leave a scrap of food on Sunday night and she has been the same all week.

When you are competing at Group 1 level everything must go right and, in fairness to the mare, she has grown in confidence and she goes into Sunday’s race with a huge amount of momentum.

I was fully sure that had improved after she won the listed race at Galway and I knew going to France on Arc weekend that it would take a very good horse to beat her, and I do believe that she has improved again.

We won’t know what her last race has taken out of her until the final 200 metres on Sunday – she has had a busy season, but she has shown me no signs of regressing at all, in fact she has grown in confidence.

She expects to be the winner every time she works at home and when she runs on the track.

Seamie’s feedback after her work on Sunday was very encouraging. It is unfortunate that Joey is suspended on Sunday, but Seamie has a lot of experience around Longchamp and I have no worries on the jockey front.

She is a very easy mare to ride. She doesn’t pull or hang, and you can sit her in or be handy and the one thing that she will do at the end of her races is quicken.

She had an overnight in England was let out in a paddock over there and door-to-door, the journey took 34 hours. I have never seen it before, but she was eating nuts on the motorway when she was moving, and you would not see a pet pony do that. She is just a bit of a freak – she was as happy on the lorry as if she was in her stable.

Justin Hannafin, who has done a lot of travelling with Willie, has gone over with her this time and Mick Molloy is driving the lorry – I just told Mick to keep everything the same as the last day.

Paddy and his sister Philomena are travelling over and back on Sunday which is just great for them. I thought they wouldn’t make it this time, but that is brilliant for them and they are just going over for the race.

The danger

I have looked through the field and the two dangers are the three-year-olds and the Aga Khan filly is the danger, but on this type of ground, I would always favour the older horse. It will be very hard work and our mare should handle conditions better than them at this stage of their lives.

We are in bonus territory with her, but we are under no illusions that tomorrow will be a huge test for her. I am not too concerned how the race will be run, and my biggest concern is the 21-day turnaround.

Everything has gone brilliantly since she won the last day and it will be just in the last 200 metres, if her last race has left its mark.

I have to say that I have been bowled over by the reaction to her all season. I hope that her journey has given people a little lift during what has been difficult a very difficult year.

I said it on our little video before her work on Sunday that I was nervous wreck before her work and I have been on edge all week and will be all weekend until the race is over, but it’s been a great journey so far and hopefully she can do the business again.

REGARDING the future, Paddy and I will have chat about that in a few weeks’ time. If she managed to win on Sunday, my view is that she won’t jump a hurdle. But that will ultimately be Paddy’s call. It is his lifetime ambition to have a horse that will be capable of winning a race at the Cheltenham Festival.

But if she wins on Sunday, she will be a very valuable mare and there is huge prize money that she can run for next year. I have said this week, that the Arc is the aim for her next year along with all the big staying races in England and France.

There is a lot at stake but there is no need to make a call on her future at the minute. We will enjoy Sunday first.