Leading Rider Luke Morris is expecting to visit the winners’ enclosure on Saturday!
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It has been seriously cold this week and while it may not have been nice for most of us going to work in the mornings, spare a thought for the lads and lasses getting up in the dark and freezing weather to keep the racing show on the road.
Day-to-day in Newmarket at the moment it’s still fairly quiet. I’ve been riding a little bit of work for my boss Sir Mark Prescott but otherwise it’s just been a case of sitting on the horses we’ve got running on the all-weather and getting a good feel for them. We’ll start cranking things up properly from the end of next month looking to the season ahead.
In terms of what we’ve been facing on the all-weather this week, the cold weather can cause the tracks to ride a little bit deeper and that’s something you have to bear in mind.
In general it’s not very nice really to be out riding as from the minute you leave the weighing room you’re exposed to the elements and you can get pretty cold. Luckily I’m always quite busy and after a couple of rides you quickly warm up, but being quite light I always make sure I wrap up nice and warm anyway.
I’ll certainly be trying to keep as warm as I can at Lingfield on Saturday and there’s nothing like a few winners to help keep the cold away.
Stosur – 12.35 Lingfield
She’s got a solid chance. She’s back down to a mile from a mile-and-a-quarter which is a trip she has run well at in the past. Her draw in eight of eight isn’t ideal so we might look to go forward with her to try overcome that. I’d say she’d have a solid each-way chance in a trappy race.
There was the option to go Friday at Wolverhampton or Saturday at Lingfield and the boss has opted for this race. I had a sit on her on Tuesday and she seems in really good order with herself. I’d like to think she’s still got a bit of room to manoeuvre off of her mark. She’s taking on some really hardened handicappers that have been around and know the business. They might only be three but they’ve had plenty of runs and they know the tracks well. By comparison she’s inexperienced and while that improvement is there in her, she’ll need to have progressed mentally from the first run to this one. I certainly hope she has.
Karnage – 3.30 Lingfield
He’s run really well the last twice when I’ve ridden him both times to be second. Running in a maiden I think he’s got a massive chance as they look a weak bunch on the whole. Court Minstrel, who is a good National Hunt horse, is an interesting opponent but he has to show he can handle the surface. I think the blinkers will help sharpen him up and help him get his head in front in this race. He’s been caught easing himself up in the closing stages in the last couple of races when he looked to have the race sewn up. I think the blinkers will help keep his mind focused and on the job all the way to the line.
Major Muscari – 4.05 Lingfield
I’ve not ridden him before but he’s been in good form and I think he’s more than capable of winning. He’s another that has a tricky draw as he’s in stall 11 of 12 so that’s something that might count against him. He should be able to run a solid race though.
Cheers,
Luke
