Nigel Twiston-Davies’ William Hill Blog: Could be a real Super Six on Saturday

We’ve a busy weekend ahead with runners six runners across Ascot, Haydock and Wincanton on Saturday. The conditions this season have been testing to say the least, so the hope is that the horses can make up for lost time and run to the best of their ability.

Bristol De Mai runs in the Grand National Trial at Haydock (2:40pm). We still treat and train him in the same way we always have – you wouldn’t think he was any other age. I had hoped that the ground would be a bit wetter for him at Haydock this weekend but, hopefully, it’ll be alright. This season has been a bit of a disaster for Bristol, unfortunately, on account of all the frost we keep getting, so we haven’t been able to get the runs in as we’d have liked.

I Like To Move It (Wincanton, 3:12pm) is still a very good horse. It was shame that everything went wrong for him on New Year’s Day at Cheltenham – wrong trip, wrong everything – but he’s in great form at the moment. I’m not sure that Wincanton will suit him entirely, and he’s another who – like Bristol – has had a pretty disastrous season for the same reasons and hasn’t been able to run anywhere. It’s not been an easy winter!

If he goes well on Saturday, then the hope is to go for the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham. Let’s see how he does.

Fantastikas (Wincanton, 3:42pm) is in great nick and really well. Similarly to I Like To Move It,  Wincanton is unlikely to suit him down to the ground but I see no reason why he shouldn’t show his best side here. We’d like a win here, and to then get him into the National in April.

Super Six (Haydock, 3:50pm) is in superb form at home. He threw away a winning chance at Hereford last time out because it was a right-handed track and he prefers the other way around. With the left-handed track at Haydock, he should be spot-on for this. Hereford was the wrong way around for him and so this should be a lot better.

He doesn’t run this weekend, but the idea with Weveallbeencaught is to go for the Albert Bartlett at the Cheltenham Festival next. His run at Leopardstown was very disappointing, but we haven’t found any problems with him since and he’s on good terms with himself at the moment. All we can hope is that it was just an off day, and he’ll be back to his best back on home turf.