Jim Crowley Saturday rides blog: 'Hopefully he can bounce back'

With another big week of horse racing drawing to a close, Jim Crowley shares his weekend rides blog, previewing his action at Sandown on July 5.

Although Hi Royal hasn’t won since his 2-y-o days, he was second in the 2,000 Guineas and third in the Irish 2,000, so clearly has plenty of ability at his best.  Two runs ago he finished a good second at Thirsk, and was then down the field in the Hunt Cup, so he’s back in slightly calmer waters here, albeit this is a competitive contest.  Life won’t be easy off top weight, but we should be drawn well in stall 3, so hopefully he can bounce back to his Thirsk form.

This is a really nicely bred son of Kingman who we like a lot.  He won his maiden well at Chelmsford, and then went to Doncaster, where I wasn’t riding him, and he just got involved in a bit of bumping and that took the wind out of his sails. I’m sure there is much more to come from him, he’s still very lightly raced, and I hope he can be competitive off his current mark.

I’ve not ridden this fellow before, he’s not been in great form on his last two runs, but his fourth place over course and distance here in April was solid enough, so of he can reproduce something on those lines, he could have an each-way chance.

This is a race I’ve been fortunate enough to win, and although I don’t have a ride this year as we didn’t want to run Anmaat on quick ground again, if I could choose any of the six, I’d have no hesitation on picking Ombudsman.  I thought I’d ridden the perfect race on Anmaat at Royal Ascot, I had them all covered, or so I thought, and then William [Buick] came past me and was gone, it was a properly impressive performance from Ombudsman. 

I’m sure William will want to ride him cold again here, with just six runners it could get tactical, but from stall 5 he can just ride his own race, what you don’t want at Sandown is to get trapped on the rail, even in a small field it can be so costly.

Ryan Moore has chosen Delacroix over Camille Pissarro which is a big hint, Delacroix is still unexposed after his Derby run told us very little, so he could be the one to chase the favourite home, but I think Ombudsman will win, and win well.

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