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Crowley calls it: ”I’m sure Okool will run a big race.”

| 15.05.2018
SPORTSBOOK ODDS

Champion jockey previews Dante festival

It was good to win on Tabarrak on Saturday at Haydock. He had a 3lb penalty but I think he’s at least a solid Group Three horse, and it was a good performance.

It was nice to see a few of the Jump lads in the weighing room. There was quite a bit of banter flying around. I was very happy to be riding the Flat horses, and I definitely wasn’t putting my hand up for any spares over the obstacles, that’s for sure.

I then flew over to Paris to ride at Longchamp. Muthmir ran okay. He needed his first run and he had a bad draw, and got stuck on the wing of the field.

He may well go back to France to Chantilly next month for the race he won last year.

Karl Burke’s filly, Elthea, ran a super race in the French 1000 Guineas. It was a very messy contest, and they ran the race on the outer track because there had been a big ‘hoo-haa’ beforehand.

She didn’t really have any excuses. I would have liked to have got out a little bit sooner and she might have then finished a place or two closer but she ran very well. She outran her odds.

I wasn’t overly impressed with the track to be honest. For a racecourse that has had two years’ off you would expect the track to be in tip-top shape.

Yet for some strange reason the ground feels very loose. There’s no stability to it. It almost feels like a track that has been newly laid even though it hasn’t.

There’s just no bite in the ground hence why Ryan Moore’s horse, US Navy Flag, slipped in the French 2000 Guineas.

The new facilities were good. I used to love the old jockeys’ changing room at Longchamp and they haven’t changed it too much. It’s a new weighing room but very similar to the old one. It had a nice feel to it.

York – Wednesday

3.30 – Tasleet

(subsequently declared a non runner)

It’s a small field which I imagine is because not too many people want to take on Harry Angel. He’s obviously the horse to beat. He has to carry the penalty but he is the class horse.  

Tasleet won the race last year, but it was soft ground that day. He always seems to run his best races with cut in the ground but he has also run okay on good to firm.

He has a nice draw. He likes to come through them a bit. He’s drawn behinjd Harry Angel so I’ll probably get a tow off him. Hopefully the race could set up for him.

Tasleet is a good horse and while on paper Harry Angel should be hard to beat it is a horse race, and Brando is no mug either. It’s going to be a great race.

It’s a Group 2 in name but a Group 1 in practice.

5.05 – Delft Dancer

I won on her last time out at Nottingham. The ground was on the slow side that day and being by Pivotal you’d think she’d want cut in the ground and she clearly handled it well.

However I remember coming back in and saying that she wouldn’t mind the ground being a bit quicker. She was a tough, hardy sort, and she improved a huge amount from her first to her second run. I would expect her to come forward again.

It’s a smart race and there are some unraced horses in there that are obviously well thought of, so you could see a surprise. I’m sure lots of good horses and winners will come out of this race.

5.35 – Okool

Okool has been working really well at home. We were going to run him over 1m 6f first time out but we just thought that as he’s such a strong traveller, and having his first run of the year, it made sense to start over a mile and a half.

He’s well drawn in 2 and is a forward runner which is a good thing at York. His last run at Newbury has worked out very well.

He wasn’t far behind Withold that went on to win the Cesarewitch so impressively. I’m sure Okool will run a big race.

Jim

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Author

Jim Crowley

Jim Crowley began his flat racing career as an amateur before switching to National Hunt racing, where he landed approximately 300 winners. He then returned to the flat to ride for sister-in-law Amanda Perrett. After years of hard work, Jim was finally rewarded when we won the 2016 Stobart Flat Jockey Championship with an incredible 148 winners. That was followed by a lucrative retained partnership with leading owner Sheikh Hamdan al-Maktoum, for whom he is the no.1 jockey.