Sean Bowen Saturday rides blog: 'He's a proper Grade 1 performer'

Sean Bowen shares his latest Coral blog ahead of Saturday's big day at Haydock, previewing his five rides.

I’m off to Haydock for five nice looking rides on what is always a big day at the Merseyside track, so it’s great that the weather concerns they had earlier in the week appear to have gone away.  

I start on Kilbarry Hill, a horse who has progressed massively from last season to this, and after three straight wins, he recorded a career best to finish second over course and distance last month. He’s up another three pounds for that run, but if there’s more improvement to come, which I think there is, he’s capable of running another big race.

The first of a couple of nice spare rides I’ve picked up, Lavender Hill Mob switched from the flat with a decent reputation, which he then didn’t quite live up to when finishing second on his hurdling debut. He’s improved since then though, running well at Cheltenham in December, and winning at Warwick last time. This is a tougher test again, but he’s another who could easily improve again and if so, take a hand here.

This horse disappointed first time up this season, but he was found to have a fibrillating heart that day, so at least there was an explanation for the performance. He then had a short break, and was running well at Cheltenham on New Year’s day before just tiring, and he took a real good blow that day. 

This has been the target since then, he’s been away for a gallop ten days ago, where he went very nicely, and ever since then I’ve been really looking forward to this, I think he can run a massive race.

What can I say about this fellow? He’s a proper Grade 1 performer who loves Haydock, so it goes with saying this is a lovely ride to have picked up, with his regular jockey, Charlie Deutsch at Ascot. He does have to carry top weight, but he keeps plenty of his rivals out of the handicap because of his rating, and he’s carried big weights to victory before here, so he’s more than capable of running a huge race.

Roaring Conquest ran OK first time up, but he improved massively on his second run, to win well at Lingfield. He had the away day gallop that Thunder Rock did recently as well, and went very nicely also, so that should put him spot on here.

He’s a very straightforward type, who should enjoy the step up in trip. It’s still early days with him, and we don’t know where we are with him yet, but obviously we’ll find out plenty more here, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he developed into a nice staying hurdler in time.

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