Charlie Hills’ William Hill blog: St James’s Palace next up for Cicero’s Gift

A great week 

We’re very lucky that the horses are in such good form. It’s always great when a yard goes through a purple patch like we are and long may it continue!

Looking back on last week, Mutasaabeq was brilliant at Newmarket. He loves the track and always seems to go well there. The plan was to make the running with him and it worked perfectly. We’ll give the Lockinge a good look now and that would seem the logical next step.

I was thrilled with Cicero’s Gift at Goodwood. We could have gone for the Guineas but we thought it was a bit early in his career for that and it was pleasing to see him take the step up in grade in his stride. It was the first time he really had to put his head down and race properly, so it was fantastic that he showed the ability I’ve been pretty confident was there.

We’ll look at the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot next. He’s entered in the Dante at York, but I want to stay at a mile for now. He’s a very exciting horse moving forward.

William [Buick] gave Saxon King a lovely ride to win that handicap. He handled the ground well enough, but I’m looking forward to getting him on some better ground as that should suit him even better.

Ibn Aldar was good at Lingfield on Tuesday too. He’d had a big lay-off, so to go through the race in the manner he did was very pleasing. We’ll step him up to seven furlongs next time.

Finally, we were thrilled with Galeron in the 2000 Guineas. I had hoped he’d outrun his price as we quietly fancied him to run well, so it was great to see him finish fourth. There are certainly plenty of good days to be had with him.

Ascot, Friday

I run two at Ascot on Friday starting with Racingbreaks Ryder in the seven-furlong handicap (1.50pm). The ground will be on the soft side but that shouldn’t be a problem and neither should the drop back to seven furlongs. It’s a small field and he looks to have a good chance of completing the hat-trick.

I’ve been pleased with Orazio since his win at Newmarket and he should go well in the six-furlong handicap (4.10pm). Providing the ground isn’t too bad, he looks to hold solid claims of a second consecutive victory.

Saturday, Ascot

Our only runner on Saturday is Saratoga Gold in the 1m4f handicap (1.30pm). He’s been working nicely and went to Newmarket a couple of weeks ago to lead Mutasaabeq which went great. He’s in good form and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him go well here.