Sean Bowen Cheltenham Trials Day rides blog: 'We look to have a solid chance'

Coral ambassador and leading jockey Sean Bowen gives this thoughts on his seven rides on Saturday at the Cheltenham Trials Day.

He ran well in a Grade Two contest last time and the form of that race has worked out well as Handstands has won again since. He came close at this course two runs back in a Listed race. I also think he should still be well-handicapped off this mark of 143. We look to have a solid chance in the opener on Trials Day.

We recorded a course and distance victory here last time, albeit in a dead-heat. He will obviously need to step up on that as we are up in grade now. His jumping will also need to sharpen up as he went through a couple of them in that success. I schooled him yesterday and he was much better. East India Dock is the obvious one to beat, but my horse is a strong stayer, so I expect he will be staying on well in the closing stages.

I don’t know too much about this horse as I’ve not ridden him before, but he ran well in a handicap chase at Newbury last month. The handicapper has put him up 1lb for that outing. He has lovely weight on his back which means he will be getting 23lb from both Ginny’s Destiny and Iroko. In what is an open race, I think he has each-way claims.

It was only last season that this horse was second in a Grand National. His form since then has been disappointing, but he often produces his best performances in the latter stages of a campaign. He is still rated at 157 and although he is 12 years old now, I would not be writing this horse off.

It is great to see Constitution Hill back on the track as he is great for the sport. I think the rest of us are probably fighting for second place here, unless something goes terribly wrong. On his day, Fils d’Oudairies has been a good horse who has not fared badly in Grade One races. My runner is the joint-second highest rated in this field, so he has a good chance of bagging that runner-up spot behind Constitution Hill.

We were disappointed with his run at Ascot in the Long Walk Hurdle. It was almost too bad to be true. He has had a wind-op since, so that should have straightened out any wind problems he was having. He has had a gallop since then and he galloped well. The New Course at Cheltenham has a stiff finish, and there won’t be many better stayers than my horse. Crambo is the obvious danger, but I am really looking forward to getting back on board Strong Leader and hopefully, he can put himself back in the Stayers’ Hurdle picture.

Potters Charm is the standout in this one, but we have always thought a lot of our horse. If he was in a handicap race, we’d think he’d be well-handicapped off this mark of 128 as there should be much more to come from him. He is a nice horse, and I think he could run a big race here.

View the latest horse racing odds

All odds and markets correct as of date of publication