Martin Dixon of the Horse Watchers provides a runner-by-runner guide ahead of a busy Saturday for the team, headed by the rejuvenated Rhoscolyn, who will try to improve upon last year’s fifth-place finish in the ‘Sovereign Path’ Handicap at Leopardstown.
Saturday runners
Rhoscolyn (5.40 Leopardstown)
He won again at Goodwood last time. That was obviously a really good result for us to win a race like that with big prize money. He won it in good style and seems to be coming back to his best form. It’s taken him a little bit of time to find his feet through the season, but he’s definitely hitting the mark now.
We’ll go to Leopardstown on Saturday hopeful of another big run from him. He was fifth in the race last year and he’s still significantly lower in the handicap than he was then. The race was very rough for him last year, he got quite badly hampered on the first bend and could never really recover from it. Under the circumstances it was a really good run.
We would have preferred a bit more rain. His record tells us that he’s very effective on soft ground and, although he has some really good form on good to firm as well, nearly all of his winning has come when there’s been soft in the description. That’s not looking likely at Leopardstown.
We’ll hope for the best and he’s certainly in very good form; he’s earned the right to go over there and have another crack. Oisin Murphy is booked to ride and he rode him when he won at Glorious Goodwood, so we’re very pleased to have him back on.
Raasel (4.10 Haydock)
He runs in the five-furlong handicap at Haydock. He’s under a big weight and the handicapper put him up again for his third in a Group 2 at Goodwood, but it’s obviously a track which plays to his strengths and James Doyle can ride him again which is a big factor with this horse because he gets such a good tune out of him.
We’ve seen that horses at the top of the weights in these big five-furlong handicaps have a good record, like Equilateral winning at York and Silky Wilkie nearly winning the ‘Dash’ at Epsom. We’re happy to throw him in there and hope for the best.
He’ll also have an entry in the Listed Scarborough Stakes at Doncaster next week. That’s a possibility if he runs well on Saturday.
Starshiba (2.10 Kempton)
He runs in the London Mile Series Final at Kempton. He’s a horse who has qualified for the race and it’s a big money, all-weather handicap over the right trip. Given his record on synthetics, he’s earned a crack at a big pot like that.
Mobashr (2.35 Ascot)
He runs in the big seven-furlong handicap at Ascot which is worth £80,000. He’s going to be running off a very light weight and he ran extremely well to finish second when we took him to Ascot last month.
He’s got a very good record over seven furlongs on straight tracks and he was seriously unlucky not to win at the Racing League meeting at Newcastle last week when he got badly stopped in his run and finished like a train from last.
He’ll go to Ascot with what we think is a good each-way chance in a race that will hopefully set up nicely for what suits him.
Heathen (4.00 Kempton)
He will run in a two-mile handicap at Haydock. We’re unsure about the trip, but we want to give it a try and, if he settles well enough, we’re optimistic that he will be effective over two miles. He’s not had a busy season and we’re still hopeful that there’s more to come from him when conditions are right for him.
Zozimus (5.15 Haydock)
He’s running in a one-mile handicap at Haydock and he was very unlucky at Beverley last weekend. He got stopped all the way up the home straight and didn’t get out until there was literally about 80 yards to go. He got through and finished second. He’s a horse with a lot of ability and he just seems to be starting to thrive. Hopefully, he’s going to go well.
Midweek winners
Aphelios won at Kempton on Wednesday when he was belatedly trying seven furlongs for the first time. We’d been wanting to do it for ages, but the right race just wasn’t there and there were always other options over six furlongs. We got drawn in by a couple of big prize money races to just give him a whirl more than anything and we took our chances with him in the Stewards’ Cup and the Great St Wilfrid.
It was in the back of our minds all the time that at some point we wanted to go to seven furlongs, so we were just very pleased that he got the job done at Kempton. We were really pleased with his attitude as well, because sometimes that’s been questioned a little bit. There was no knocking him because he had to stick his head down and go through with it. It was a proper battle and he ended up winning with a little bit in hand I thought, despite a very wide trip.
Hopefully, there’s quite a bit more to come from him over seven furlongs. He’ll have an entry in the Racing League at Southwell next Wednesday and, if he gets picked for the team, we will in all likelihood run there.
We were absolutely delighted with Painters Palette at Wolverhampton on Thursday. Rebecca [Menzies] has done a fantastic job with him and that was a pretty smart performance. We feel like he was value for more having to come from where he did, covering a lot of ground around the outside on the bend.
It was really good to see him stick his head down and hit the line as hard as he did. We feel like there's going to be more to come from him and we're delighted with how things are going generally.
More from Sporting Life
Safer gambling
We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.
Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org