PRINCESS Zoe arrived over in France on Wednesday and had a canter on the inside track at ParisLongchamp on Thursday morning and she appears to be in great form.

She has taken everything in her stride. She had her last serious piece of work at home on Saturday morning – Joey Sheridan came in and rode her – and she worked very well.

I think she is as good as ever and if I’m honest I think she has improved since she won her listed race at Galway.

We are stepping up from listed to a Group 1 and from a mile and a half to two and a half miles, but she has answered every call that has been asked of her so far and I don’t believe that there is any reason to doubt that she won’t improve again.

I do not think the step up in trip will bother her. She won around Galway over two miles and they usually to go very steady over here and I think that will suit her.

But having said that the German horse Windstoss, I am told, tends to go off hard in front and if he does so, it may develop into an attritional race. I have spoken to Joey about it and I’ll leave it to him.

Getting back to her work last Saturday, what impressed me was the way that she quickened away from her work companion and on the basis of that bit of work, I think she has come on again – she wouldn’t have done that a month ago, so I’m optimistic she has definitely improved again since Galway.

Jackie [Carter] rode her out on Thursday morning and one thing is for sure, she will love what is likely to be very deep ground.

Everyone I meet wants to talk about Zoe. Usually around Gowran the chat is invariably about jumps horses, but for now Zoe has been the main topic of conversation.

Thrived

As you all know, I’m some dreamer and I just cannot believe what has happened over the last few months. We always knew that she was a decent filly and that she could win a couple of decent handicaps, but she has thrived with racing and officially, she has improved 45lbs since June.

I’ve never had a horse do that and I wouldn’t be one to get nervous, but there is a huge amount of goodwill and everyone seems to be rooting for us, which is very humbling to be honest.

Everyone I meet wants to talk about Zoe. Usually around Gowran the chat is invariably about jumps horses, but for now Zoe has been the main topic of conversation.

We are not heading to France to make up the numbers, and I think she has a serious chance of winning a Group 1.

We have stuck with Joey Sheridan and every decade we see a couple of exceptional young riders coming through. You must remember for a young rider to do well over here, they have to take on the best, day in day out and Joey looks an exceptional rider.

He has won three listed races this year and only the exceptional can do that – especially when they are still claiming 5lbs.

The late Pat Smullen was the last one that caught my eye the way this lad has – he has a good bit to go, but he is a very good rider and there was never any doubt, that as long as he was available, that he would ride her today.

There is a great buzz about the yard. We’ve trained Grade 1 winners, but this one seems to be a cut above. She is very sound and she has a great head for the busy time that she is going through.

She has taken everything in her stride and it just makes things so easy, when the horses are in a good frame of mind.

She left here just after 5am on Wednesday and she travelled to England and from there to ParisLongchamp and as I said, she stretched her legs there on Thursday morning.

For her owner’s Paddy Kehoe and his sister Philomena, it’s been a great journey too. We go back a long way and when I was a jockey, I rode Grabel for Paddy and my father, to win the most valuable jumps race of the 20th century in America and that was huge at the time.

That was just after Dawn Run had gone and riding good horses was pretty regular for me at the time. But when you’ve waited 30 years for next one, it is very, very exciting and now I know how hard it is get to where we are with this filly.

We decided a few weeks ago that we’d keep people informed as to what she’d do this season on Twitter and the reaction to anything that we’ve posted has been unbelievable.

Good news

Social media can be a toxic place – look at the carry on in America – but I think people are craving for a bit of good news and a break from all the negativity. We’ll do our best to keep that going.

We only have 25 horses in the yard but we want to do everything right. Gillian O’Brien comes in once month and is a huge help to the mare. She used to be a bit stiff and sore, but Gillian has done a lot of work on her.

Mick Corrway is another who must be mentioned. It’s been well documented when the mare arrived from Germany, she hadn’t the best of front legs, but Mick has put a lot of work into her.

We have her on vitamins which promote hoof growth and she has been shod to minimise the impact of her incorrectness and her conformation.

Mick has been working hard on her for the last eight months and he was sure that with the right approach, we would find huge improvement and he was dead right.

Looking at the race, Call The Wind is the big danger and he won a £1 million race in Riydah earlier this year.

It’s a big ask, but I have great time for my filly, and she heads into the race a real contender.

I’VE seen some great Arc winners and I suppose the best of them for me was Sea The Stars – and with Love out, this year’s race looks like Enable’s to lose. She is the best filly of her generation and assuming she doesn’t get stuck in the ground, she is a very worthy favourite and I’d love to see her win.

Scottass and Persian King are my two outside of the favourite and the German Derby winner has to be respected. But for me, it’s Enable.

AS an aside, we have two new horses coming in from Germany in the next few weeks. One of them is a filly called La Hacienda and she comes recommended to me by Bernard Cullinane, who of course found Party Playboy, Scalino and Princess Zoe for us over there.

Anyone with an interest in getting involved can get in touch with me on Twitter. I have always liked German horses. They are solid, tough horses and all the ones that I’ve got, have all jumped. They tend to like an ease in the ground and this filly seems to be improving with every run. She is still a maiden, but I’ve seen her videos and I like what I’ve seen. She has run just three times and she looks a nice type and assuming I’m happy with her, we may run in a three-year-old hurdle around Christmas time.