What have I been up to this week?
It’s been a good week, riding a few winners, especially with Making Headway winning well at Newbury last Saturday. I’ve been feeling a little bit under the weather, picking up a few germs from the kids over the last few days, and it’s been a tough task getting out of bed at times, but we’ve managed to pull through. I’ve had a busy week riding out and managed to get down to Oliver Greenall’s and school lots of nice horses.
What is Haydock like to ride?
Haydock is a course I like riding at. The fences take plenty of jumping, but I would say it’s a fair track. If you can get your horse on the bridle to two or three fences out, you’re normally in with a really good chance of winning, which is easy for me to say. It’s a track where they get racing early, and it can be a long way home up the straight, where horses can get tired from two fences out. If you can get an easy lead on the front end, turning in for home, it can be hard for the opposition to catch you.
My Saturday rides at Haydock
1.02 – Windtothelighting (Oliver Greenall & Josh Guerriero)
This mare provided me with my first winner in the Rhino breeches back at Wetherby in November. Today she steps up in class for the rearranged Mares’ Listed Hurdle. She’s a horse I hold in high regard. She will have to find a few pounds on the favourite, Youwearitwell, who is definitely the horse to beat, but hopefully we can pick her up some black type as she deserves it.
1.37 – Good Work (Oliver Greenall & Josh Guerriero)
He had a really good run to finish second at Bangor-On-Dee back in December over 3m. He drops back in trip today, which shouldn’t be a problem on this testing ground. I think he’s a horse who runs better in a higher grade of race off a low weight like this than in a lesser grade off a big weight.
2.10 – Kuzco (Oliver Greenall & Josh Guerriero)
He’s a horse who has come over from France and has only recently joined the team. He jumps really well at home, but this looks like a very hot little juvenile contest. It would be great to see him run a nice race on his UK debut.