ASCOT

1:15

Fresh Kicks (James Bowen)

There are two questions here, the first is, does he stay, and the second is how well handicapped is he off 120? The answer to both, I hope, are yes, and he was impressive at Plumpton last time but it will be a hard task carrying 12 stone. He was placed in a Point to Point and looks as though he will stay, so I’m hopeful, but one can never be overly confident in a race as competitive as this.

2:25

Impose Toi (Nico De Boinville)

He won an ordinary looking Pertemps Qualifier at Aintree, which rather closed off the Handicapping road, so we went to Newbury for the Long Distance Hurdle and it was there that he established himself as an improving staying hurdler.

I think we now have to go down this route, and while this is his third race of the season already, he is an extremely relaxed and laid-back horse who handles racing very well.

He doesn’t show an iota at home, which doesn’t worry me because he comes to life on the track, but from what I can see, he’s in good form and three miles is most definitely his trip now.

Doddiethegreat (James Bowen)

He’s quite a hard horse to place and would struggle to win a Handicap off his current rating, but he won the Pertemps so we can’t complain. He’s a fair bit better off at the weights with Impose Toi than he was at Newbury, so that gives him a chance of swinging the form around, and I do believe this is his best distance. Any money he wins all goes to the Doddie Weir Foundation and it’s great prize money so we are giving it our best shot.

3:00

Hyland (Nico De Boinville)

Ground is everything to him and I thought he ran a very respectable race at Newbury last time. That was only a few weeks ago but he appears to be in good order at home so we are taking our chance. As I say, ground is key, because he jumps so much better on it rather than soft where he finds it much harder, so we will be monitoring the weather beforehand. We are forcast dry weather on Friday/Saturday so fingers crossed we will be ok.

He is entered in the Welsh Grand National but that is usually always run in a bog therefore this looked the most viable option.

3:35

Joyeuse (Nico De Boinville)

She’s had two runs over fences, finishing second on each occasion and you’d have to be a little bit underwhelmed by her performance at Exeter the other day, but she appeared to jump very well and we may have underestimated the winner who, it was pointed out to me, was sent off favourite for the Unibet Greatwood in November, but we did still have a few pounds in hand so should’ve really been winning it. Anyway, we’re switching back to hurdles, which she clearly likes jumping, and it would be nice if she could get her career back on track.

HEREFORD

2:13

Holloway Queen (Freddie Gordon)

She was very ring rusty at Cheltenham last time but has improved a lot for it and that will have sharpened her up nicely for this Chase debut. Soft ground isn’t a problem for her and she schools extremely well at home, very, very well in fact, so I’m quite hopeful she can make her presence felt if she gets the trip, which I think she should.

3:23

Mariole (Freddie Gordon)

He’s a nice young horse, who we are still learning about, but he had one one in France running very respectively. We’ve gone straight over hurdles with a couple of our other younger horses, and they’ve both won, but this lad seems to have a bit of zip and I’d like to think he’s capable of winning a bumper before going over obstacles.

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