Jim Crowley: ‘I believe Lavender’s Blue is better than she showed at Newmarket.’
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Coral ambassador Jim Crowley previews his Royal Ascot day two rides
Our man Jim Crowley looks ahead to his three rides at Royal Ascot on Wednesday, including Lavender’s Blue in the Duke Of Cambridge Stakes.
My first ride on day two of this year’s Royal meeting is Lavender’s Blue, trained by my sister-in-law Amanda Perrett. On her last run I thought she ran really well at Newmarket, things just didn’t quite work out for us, but she finished behind Lady Bowthorpe – who’s since finished second to Palace Pier in the Lockinge – and Queen Power, who went on to win at York. Both of those fillies run again here, but I do think we have a decent chance of reversing the form, and certainly being in the mix.
At Newmarket there was no pace, so I made the running, and as a result I was there to be shot at. I got in a battle with Queen Power, and then Lady Bowthorpe came and did us both. I’ll ride her differently here, I’ll hold onto her for longer, and I do think she can run a really big race, I believe she’s better than she showed at Newmarket, and she’s a big price to turn the tables.
It wasn’t a straightforward choice to pick Haqeeqy over Maydanny in the Royal Hunt Cup, but I’ve gone for the former, who has been trained for this race since his Lincoln win really. That form has worked out well, and he does look the more progressive of the pair, which is reflected in the betting also.
Both horses have been drawn well on the stands side, and Maydanny has plenty of early pace so I know there will be pace on that side, which is really what matters more than the draw. He ran well in this race 12 months ago when drawn on the ‘wrong’ side, and his last run at Newmarket over a furlong further than this was decent, so he’s definitely not without a chance. As always when we have two in the race, I hope that if I can’t win, Dane [O’Neill] will.
My final ride of the day is Silks Pass, trained by my old weighing room buddy Darryll Holland, the Dazzler! I went up to Redcar to ride this horse last month, Darryll said he would win and he was spot on, so fair play to him. Obviously this is a big step up from Redcar, but hopefully there will be some improvement to come and we can give the owners a good day out.
Darryll is a new addition to the training ranks, his assistant is another ex-weighing room colleague, Kieren Fallon, and although I’ve only ridden for them twice so far, they’re not the sort to tie me down with too many instructions, they both know as a jockey you often need to make the decisions as the race unfolds, so I don’t think I’ll be needing a clipboard for the pre-race briefing!
Jim
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