Aidan Coleman
Aidan’s blog - Hopeful of Justice prevailing
I’ve got an interesting book of rides at Haydock on Saturday, where there’s some excellent racing and prizemoney on offer and hopefully I can leave with a share of it.
I kick off with Rigidity in the opening Betfair Hurdle, which looks a quality race. I’ve never ridden Rigidity before but he must be decent to be rated 132 and has some good form in the book, including a third in a decent juvenile hurdle at Fairyhouse in April.
Tim (Vaughan)’s horses are in fine form but it does look a hot race, and Grandouet looks the one to beat. He was a very good horse last season, when he won the champion juvenile hurdle at Punchestown, and looked the likely winner at Wincanton a fortnight ago before falling two out.
Houblon Des Obeaux runs in the two and half mile handicap hurdle. Again, he has some decent past performances, including his third in the Grade 1 juvenile hurdle at Aintree and, prior to that, a win in the Victor Ludorum at Haydock over two miles.
Winning form at the track will obviously be an advantage, and this step up in trip will be to his benefit too. Like all Venetia’s horses, he will come on a lot for his first run of the season at Chepstow nearly a month ago. He’s definitely good enough for a race like this.
Quartz De Thaix lines up for the valuable £75,000 handicap hurdle. We really want him to go chasing but he seems to be in two minds about it, and finds the hurdles less daunting. It’s a shame as he jumps very well and has some good form over fences, winning twice last season before finishing seventh at the Festival.
He wasn’t having any of it though at Wetherby on his seasonal debut over fences, so we put him back over hurdles next time, when he was fourth at Exeter.
It’s certainly a plus point that he has two runs under his belt this term and he has the talent to take a hand in this.
Summery Justice was all the rage for the Welsh National last year but never made it there after a setback and in fact hasn’t run since winning at Bangor over a year ago now.
He’s won first time up the last two seasons, which bodes well for him ahead of the closing three-mile handicap chase. The Welsh National will be the target again and he's got plenty of talent. Hopefully the road to Chepstow will start with an encouraging run here.
Looking ahead to Sunday and I’d be very hopeful of Renard completing a hat-trick in the (Bathwick Tyres Taunton) handicap chase at Exeter. I’ve had a look at the form, and I’d have to be pretty confident. He is clearly progressing well and this looks a great opportunity.
It’s been a fairly quiet week but one definitely worth keeping an eye on is Carpincho, who I rode to win at Market Rasen on Thursday. I think he’s capable of running up some wins this season and I’d be keen to keep the ride on him.
Looking back to Sunday and Tenor Nivernais was incredibly disappointing at Cheltenham. I’m at a loss to explain what happened, but that was nowhere near his true running. Don’t give up on him.
Finally, I had a great laugh on Tuesday filming a TV ad to promote Racing UK in the pub. I was in London with Ruby and Hayley and was filmed in all sorts of poses in the bar. I know all three of us can’t wait to see the end result!
Enjoy the weekend!
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