William Hill’s new horse racing ambassador looks ahead to a selection of his runners at this year’s Royal Ascot.
Persuasion – Buckingham Palace Stakes (Thursday, 6.10pm)
Persuasion had some really good form as a two-year-old and whatever happened last year he just lost that form. He lost a bit of condition and had some ulcers, so we’ve just taken our time with him over the winter and he’s thrived on the back of that.
He probably doesn’t like too much racing, so the plan was always to run him at Haydock, where the form has worked out well since, and then wait for this week where I think he has a pretty good chance.
Equality – Palace Of Holyroodhouse Stakes (Friday, 6.10pm)
Equality lines up in the Palace Of Holyroodhouse Stakes on Friday and comes into it with a rating of 88 after an emphatic win at Wolverhampton. James [Doyle] said to me after the race that he was going to buy some wing mirrors as he shouldn’t have won so far! In reality, we probably needed that rating of 88 to get into a race like this and although we would have liked to get a run in before this race, he is a pretty straightforward horse.
He’s a well-bred horse with a lot of speed and great attitude, much like his father – Equiano – who we trained to win the King’s Stand Stakes. It’s not going to be straightforward going to Royal Ascot with only three-starts but hopefully he’s on the up.
Mutasaabeq – Jersey Stakes (Saturday, 3.05pm)
Mutasaabeq runs in the Jersey Stakes on Saturday and he’s a pretty decent horse. He went off quite short in the Guineas and unfortunately was drawn on the wrong side, but he still ran a big race. The plan has always been to drop him back to 7f and the Jersey looks to be the right race for him. Since then he’s been training nicely so it seems to have come at the right time for him.
I hope that in time he can get back up to a mile, he’s won twice over 7f so he’s not short of speed, but a mile shouldn’t be a problem at all in the future.
Going into the Guineas he was quite lightly raced and inexperienced, so we’ve given him a bit of time to freshen up since and recover because the ground was very quick and they went a fair gallop that day. Ultimately, we’re very happy with him and he’s working very well.
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