Lucinda Russell’s William Hill blog: Hoping this can be Ahoy Senor’s year

William Hill ambassador Lucinda Russell previews her runners this weekend, headlined by Ahoy Senor in the Betfair Chase at Haydock.

Haydock, Saturday

Saturday is a big day for the yard as we send Ahoy Senor to Haydock for the Betfair Chase, as well as a host of other runners up and down the country.

We kick off with Rocheval in a novices’ hurdle (12.08pm) and there’s no denying that I really like this horse. So far he’s only run in junior bumpers and novice hurdles, so this step out of that sphere will be a test, but I think he’s a horse of great ability and I’d had this race in mind for a while. We had wanted to get a run into him before, but the ground hadn’t been right. Now that it is, we’re excited to be running him.

You’ll also see that we have Bold Light in the same race, and he’s a nice horse too. He’s had his physical issues throughout his career but he could barely have been more impressive than he was the other day at Kelso. This is a big step up for him, no doubt, but who knows, he could surprise a few people.

Netywell is a horse who loves it when the mud’s flying, and if the forecasts from Haydock are to be believed, the handicap chase (12.40pm) ought to be up his street. He had a great campaign last year, and while we’ve had to wait to get him out, the expected softer going at Haydock should be what he wants. He’s a little bit difficult to train at home, and Scu does a lot of work with him. He seems happy with him, so we’re hoping he’ll put in a big run.

We can’t wait to run Ahoy Senor in the Betfair Chase (3.05pm). He made a pleasing reappearance at Aintree where I thought he put in a good effort over probably an inadequate trip. We’ve made no secret that we wanted to train him differently this year and have him all-out ready for the Betfair Chase, and we think we have him where we want him. You’ve obviously got Grey Dawning in there as the favourite, but if this were a handicap, he’d be getting chunks of weight off the established horses. We respect him immensely, but it’ll be interesting to see if he can bridge the gap. For our guy, the ground is probably a little on the slow side, but we think he handles softer ground, and he ought to be fine on it. He’s in super form and we hope this is going to be Ahoy Senor’s year.

Ascot, Saturday

Inis Oirr was a cracking horse for us last term, winning the Edinburgh National by a street. He heads to Ascot (2.05pm) and does so as he really needs to go right-handed. It’s a long way to go for a run, and the stiff fences there will test his jumping, but we hope he can get into a good rhythm. He’s not the fastest horse in the world, but he doesn’t half stay well, and hopefully he can put it all together, whether on Saturday or in the near future.

Wolverhampton, Saturday

We have an interesting Flat runner on Saturday night at Wolves (7.55pm) in the shape of Two Auld Pals. We were encouraged by his run last time out on the all-weather and thought we’d look for a similar race on the surface. We’ve got Richard Kingscote booked which a massive coup, and although he’s got a wide enough draw, we think he’s got a nice chance.