Richard Hannon hopes Nightime Dancer can book his Epsom ticket in Saturday’s William Hill Lingfield Derby Trial Stakes.
The colt made a winning reappearance over a mile-and-a-half at Southwell last month and the trainer is confident there’s more to come as the season progresses.
“He’s done very well since then. It wasn’t actually a big surprise to see him win like he did at Southwell and I think it turned out a pretty good race, better than people thought on the day,” he told Friday’s Nick Luck Daily Podcast.
“I do think he’ll be better over this trip, I worry a little about the ground and I thought about leaving him in the Dante but I’m looking forward to Saturday and we’ll learn a lot about him. He’s a horse we like a lot.”
He is Hannon’s only remaining entry in the Betfred Derby and Hannon added: “I think he’s the right horse, he’s by the right stallion, I think Ghaiyyath looks like being a very good stallion. I’ve got another horse called Stem but he won’t make June time, he’ll be more July time I think and will be a very good horse over the same trip but hopefully Nightime Dancer will run very well on Saturday.
“I always find this Derby trial cuts up a little but typically it hasn’t this year.”
When told he was a top-priced 12/1 for the Saturday race Hannon added: “He is lightly raced and nobody really knows a lot about him and I think that’s about right but he was undervalued last time and was about 5/1 for the novice race.
“He’ll run well and at those adds I wouldn’t mind having a few quid each-way.”
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