Gavin Cromwell
Gavin Cromwell’s William Hill blog: Inothewayurthinkin on his A-game will take a lot of beating
Speaking on William Hill’s Inside Track: Ireland podcast, William Hill ambassador Gavin Cromwell offers an update on stable stars Inothewayurthinkin, Flooring Porter and Only By Night for Cheltenham.
Inothewayurthinkin, Flooring Porter & Only By Night updates
Inothewayurthinkin did a bit of work after racing in Fairyhouse last week and that went very well. It’s difficult to know why he’s unperformed so much this season, but I suppose the yard hasn’t had the season we would have wished for. Horses have underperformed and he’s the one that’s really highlighted it. I was happy enough with his run in the John Durkan. He was beaten a long way but it was a funny race, they went helter-skelter and he was flat to the boards all the way, but he jumped really well and stayed going well.
Christmas was a disaster. He didn’t show up at all and we were on the back foot after that. At the Dublin Racing Festival he had run an okay race down to the second last. He got a bit tired up the straight, but I didn’t mind that so much – it was just a disaster when he fell. Since that, he hasn’t missed a beat. He got up from that fall and hasn’t turned back.
He’s one more bit of work to do before he goes to Cheltenham, so hopefully that’ll be good. We haven’t done anything differently with him, but you can see his coat has come now. When you look back at his history, he seems to be a real spring horse. Maybe that’s the case. I don’t think he’d want it heavy, but he wouldn’t want good ground too. He’s not the quickest horse and I wouldn’t want him taken off his feet.
You can make a case for plenty in the race, but if Inothewayurthinkin is on his A-game, he’s going to take plenty of beating. He was a good winner of the race last year and hopefully we can get him there in the same condition.
Unfortunately Flooring Porter has met a setback and is not going to make Cheltenham or the Grand National. We’ve just met a speedbump in the road en route to the spring Festivals. He’s going to be fine, but this has just set us back.
I’m happy with Only By Night going to the Mares’ Chase. She missed the Dublin Racing Festival because her bloods weren’t right, but she’s bounced back from that and is in good nick.
There are questions over whether she’ll stay, but when she first when chasing over two miles, we thought it was actually going to be too sharp for her. We’ve always thought she’d want two-and-a-half, but she’s such a quick jumper and she was only just touched off in the Arkle last year over two miles.
She’s not a guaranteed stayer, but we’ve always thought she might appreciate the trip. Hopefully we’re right.
