Jamie Spencer says it’s all or nothing on Renneti in the Cesarewitch

Last Saturday worked out well with me winning the big handicap at Ascot on Buckstay. He had good class form going into it and I was just hoping there was going to be a strong enough pace. It worked out well in the end. The whole season’s gone well to be honest. Obviously it was good riding a Royal Ascot winner but apart from that June was a sticky month for me. But since then the season has gone well for me. From the July meeting onwards everything has clicked with me riding a big winner at Glorious Goodwood on Big Orange , nice winners at the Shergar Cup,  York, Doncaster. Good winners on Saturdays. Basically since July everything has gone really smoothly. I’ve got on plenty of nice horses, and plenty of Saturday horses which is what counts most.

I had a small inkling that Andrea Atzeni was going to be leaving his job with Qatar Racing. Was I surprised? Well I suppose everyone has different things that they want out of life, and it’s probably an easier life riding for one big stable than on horses spread around 50 stables. That’s hard work because you’re dealing with so many different trainers. You never know where they are going to run their horses. It’s just hard to keep on top of it all. In theory you burn a lot of bridges with other people because if you have one for Qatar at Newbury, you book a load of other rides at the meeting for other trainers, and then the Qatar horse doesn’t run, and you have to ride a Qatar horse at Ayr instead, and you have to let down those other trainers. It doesn’t take many days like that to piss off all the other trainers. So it’s the sort of job you just have to be 100% focused on, as if you’re looking at the job thinking I want to ride horses on the outside of the retainer then you’ll just end up going mad. It’s all or nothing. That’s the job.

For Andrea, it’s probably easier at his stage of his career to be in control working for one yard. Roger is a big ally of his. He was the trainer that put Andrea on the big stage. They get on well together and I’m sure it will work well. It’s disappointing for Sheikh Fahad because obviously he had big belief in Andrea and liked him. It would be very hard not to like him.

In the 2.00pm at Newmarket I ride Martini Time in the Nursery. She’s a Pivotal filly who won a couple of races earlier in the season but looks like she’s gone off the boil. She has a nice draw and Mark Johnston horses like to race close to the pace so that’s probably the plan. I think this is my first ride for Mark for over five years or something like that. Hopefully she can run well.

In the 2.35pm I’m on Dragon Mall in the Group Three. His owner is in town so we’re running him. The ground is a bit of an unknown as it’s on the easy side of good. I sat on him on Wednesday and he feels great . He’s a horse that I like and he is getting better all the time. He was very straightforward  at Chelmsford when he won, he just cruised into the race, so we’ll just have to see how we get on. Obviously Ryan’s horse, Beacon Rock just got beat in The Beresford Stakes and got hindered a little bit that day too. In fact I think he probably would have won without the trouble. He’s a big danger.

I’m in the Air Force Blue camp in the Dewhurst. The ground was horrible at The Curragh and yet he absolutely hammered them so easily. It will be much nicer ground than it was at the Curragh, and as a War Front colt he’ll like that. I’ve been very impressed with him. It’s definitely between him and Emotionless. I can’t see anything else in their class in the race.

I’m on Renneti in the Cesarewitch at 3.50pm. I enjoy riding in this race when you’re on a horse with a chance of winning. I’ve won it once on Detroit City for Phillip Hobbs. It’s always a very competitive handicap. Renneti is a quirky horse. He’s refused to race recently but clearly has a lot of talent. I think a big help for the horse is the fact that, as long as I get him to the start, he’s then racing for home from the word go which is probably the only long distance race where you are heading home from the start. That will hopefully entice him to put his best foot forward. He’s clearly talented and they thought he’d nearly win last time at Leopardstown and he was having none of it. If I can just humour him I think the class is there. He’s a Grade 1 hurdler and he’s running with 8st 8lbs on his back so he’ll feel like he’s running loose. He’s a dark horse in the race. It will be all or nothing, he’ll either win or be tailed off. Willie Mullins doesn’t tilt at windmills and someone quite close to the action there said he’ll win the Cesarewitch so hopefully they’re right. I’m excited about riding him.

I ride a German trained horse Banana Split in the Fillies Listed race at 5.00pm. I rode in the race at Hoppergarten when she finished third and she is a nice filly. But she has a lot to do to win here, so if I can get a place on her I’ll be pleased.

Then in the last at 5.35pm I’m on Energia Davos. He disappointed in the Cambridgeshire. He was just never going that day. He’ll need to show a lot more this time. It’s a warm race. He looks up against it.

Jamie