Martin Dixon of the The Horse Watchers syndicate assesses the team's runners on Friday, including hat-trick-seeking Royal Zabeel's claims at Southwell.
Upcoming runners
Royal Zabeel - 15:00 Southwell, Friday
Royal Zabeel has been brilliant for us. He's progressed fairly rapidly through the ranks and his two wins have been impressive. For Friday's race he's off a higher mark and in probably a more competitive contest than those he's been winning, but he's had a nice break since Wolverhampton, seems in top form and Ali [Rawlinson] has been doing all the work with him at home and has been delighted over the last couple of weeks.
Ali thinks he's going there thriving and he should run a big race again. He's won over the course and distance already and the signs are that he's still on an upward curve. He's going to have to keep on improving but the feel he's been giving at home has been very positive. It's obviously very competitive and there are a whole host of bang in-form horses in the field so it won't be straightforward, but he should run a big race.
Sanat - 16:30 Southwell, Friday
He's dropping back to five furlongs. He's a very strong-travelling, keen-going horse and when he ran over six furlongs at Chelmsford last time they didn't go very quick early on. He ended up at the back of the field and pulling Mason Paetel's arms out. We think he's probably going to be better suited by a straight track and hopefully a strong pace back at the minimum trip.
He's running back off his correct mark - last time he was out of the handicap. All things considered, he wasn't disgraced at Chelmsford and hopefully this proves to be more suitable for him. There are some horses in the field who are right at the top of their game - Master of My Fate, Rhythm N Hooves and Cousel are all coming off the back of wins - so it's by no means going to be an easy race. We're still learning about him to some extent, but we think a strongly-run five might suit him.
Cooperation - 18:00 Newcastle, Friday
Cooperation has been knocking on the door and has finished a close second on each of his last two starts. It looks like when a race sets up just right he's ready to win soon. A lot of the sprint handicaps are competitive races and you need the rub of the green to some extent, but he's in very good form and hopefully will give another good account.
Dash Gordon - 19:10 Southwell, Saturday
He's been holding his form very consistently but I felt he probably should have won last time if he'd been giving Billy [Loughnane] everything off the bridle. We've put some cheekpieces on him to try sharpening him up a bit when he comes under pressure. His best two runs for us have both been at Southwell over the straight five furlongs so it seems to suit him, and hopefully the cheekpieces draw out an extra few pounds of improvement. He's got a sound chance.
Recent reflections
Heathen
Heathen was impressive - he has a lot of ability when he's right. We seem to have found the key to him in that he needs plenty of time between his race, and when he's right on his game and goes into his races fresh he has a dangerous turn of foot for a staying horse on the all-weather. Those small-field races that are not run at a strong pace, that you often get on the all-weather, seem to suit him really well as he can quicken when they up the ante.
We saw that from him when he won at Southwell earlier in the season and at Wolverhampton the other night. He'll have another couple of months before he runs again and we'll probably aim him at Good Friday, either for the big Marathon at Newcastle or potentially a mile-six contest at Chelmsford that's also worth good money.
Symbol of Light
He was an easy winner at Southwell last Friday. We've got a few options with him and he'd be a possible for the Lincoln Trial at Wolverhampton the Saturday before Cheltenham and he'll almost certainly have a go at the all-weather Mile final. He's gone up 8 lb, so handicapping wise they've hit him quite hard, which makes it a bit trickier, but he's obviously going to the back-end of the all-weather season in top form.
We just hope he can build on last week. Jason [Watson] gave him a very good ride from the front, dictating and dominating the race, so he did have it quite easy, but we were pleased to see he could be ridden that way because previously he'd often been ridden patiently. This opens up the door of being able to switch things up with him tactically and ride him to suit the race.
Westernesse
He came back off an absence at Newcastle last week and ran really well for a long way but just blew up late on. He was still only beaten less than three lengths on his comeback and will have needed that. Hopefully he'll step forward from it next time and he's down on a winning mark now. We struggled to get him 100 per cent right last season, for all he still ran some decent races in defeat, and he seems in a good place now.
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