Jamie Spencer confident of more success from six rides at Newmarket

I ride Mount Tahan in the first race for Kevin Ryan at 1.50. He’s an enigma of a horse. He has lots of ability and can be a little bit headstrong so hopefully we can get him to spit it out and relax. He’s forward going anyway. As long as he doesn’t go too fast in front he’d have an each way chance.

Then in the 3.00 I’m on Desert Encounter. He’s a nice horse and improved well to win at Doncaster on his first start of the year. He’s stepping up again in distance and in class. It’s the next step for him logically.

Dragon Mall is my mount in the 3.40. he’s been gelded over the winter which has made him a nice person to deal with anyway. He’s a horse with oodles of energy and enthusiasm for life. He’s not easy but has lots of talent. I’ve ridden him a couple of times this spring, I rode him last week and he went really nicely, and I’ll be disappointed if he isn’t there or thereabouts. His work has been good and I think good, good to firm, type ground is really important to him. It was on the slow side of good at Newmarket when he ran last time out, and he was coming to the end of a long year as well.

Mr Lupton, my ride in the 4.10, was very disappointing on his first start of the season. He didn’t show anything really. He just jumped out of the stalls and stayed in the same position, so he’ll need to pull his socks up today. It’s a competitive race, with decent prize money, and Richard likes to go for the good prize money so I can see why he’s running him. He’ll need to improve on that first run of the year but you can never discount Richard’s horses from doing that.

In the 4.45 I ride Batts Rock in a small field. He won his maiden nicely at Wolverhampton. The horse that Batts Rock beat well then came out and only just got beat at Bath, so the form has worked out quite well. I didn’t think it was much good at the time. Michael thinks he’s a nice horse and if he’s a horse that’s going to go to Royal Ascot then he’ll need to be winning this. The Ed Dunlop horse Opposition won well at Doncaster but this is a different type of race for him. I like him. He’s a big strong grey horse by Dalakhani. He’s probably the big danger.

In the last I’m on Majestic Hero. He ran well the other day and has reasonable form off this kind of rating. We’ll have to see how he goes.

I have six rides in total on the day but my two best chances are probably Batts Rock and Dragon Mall.

I go to France on Sunday. I have a ride in the French 1000 Guineas on Kenriya for the owner/breeder Guy Pariente. We’ll see how she goes. She won her first two starts and then she got beat last time in her trial but ran well. It looks an open race but she goes there with a good chance. I spoke to Mickael Barzalona who said that she’s quite a good filly and could well be a French Oaks horse down the line. I then have five rides on Monday in France for the owner.  It’s come out of the blue really and I’m looking forward to riding for him over the weekend.

Jamie