Brendan Powell: ‘He goes there with a really solid chance’
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Brendan Powell previews his runners for Saturday and Sunday at Wincanton and Plumpton: “He goes there with a really solid chance”
Saturday
He’s a horse that came to us with quite a reputation, and although it took him a bit of time to find his feet, he really seems to be showing us what he’s capable of now. He really put it all together here last time, and he won with plenty in hand with some quite nice horses in behind. The ground was quite soft that day too, so although conditions look like they’ll be very testing tomorrow, I don’t see that being a major problem for him.
Kim Bailey’s horse looks to have some decent form, so he’s likely to be our main danger, but I think our lad might have improved for that win last time, so I’d say he goes there with a really solid chance.
She’s having her first run for Jamie Snowden here, so I don’t know an awful lot about her, but she won four races in France on the flat, so she’s clearly got plenty of ability.
You never know how these flat horses are going to react when they go hurdling on the racecourse for the first time, so we’ll have to see how well she jumps, but it doesn’t look the strongest race in the world, so hopefully the ability she’s shown on the flat will enable her to get competitive.
This will be the first time I’ve ridden Bumpy Johnson, but he’d certainly have some sort of a chance on his best form. He didn’t really take to chasing on his last few starts, but he returns to hurdling here off a mark he’s already won off, so the handicapper has certainly given him a chance.
The form of his wins at Ffos Las last year don’t read too badly at all, so he could go well here if he can return to something like that form.
Sunday
The race didn’t really go to plan here last time, and we just didn’t really get the best run throughout the race. His jumping wasn’t too bad, but he did make the odd error, so we just couldn’t get into a good rhythm, but he did come home well towards the finish.
It looks a competitive little race, so he will have to improve his jumping, but he wears cheekpieces for the first time, and I think they are what he needs just to help him concentrate a bit more and keep his mind on the job. He has plenty of ability this horse, and he has a nice racing weight here too, so hopefully he can put it all together and finally get off the mark over fences.
Brendan
