Gavin Cromwell’s William Hill Blog: Now Is The Hour for a Winner

The horses have been good to us this week, with a winner in Clonmel on Thursday and a good handful of placers through the week.

Let’s hope the good form will keep up over the weekend, when we’ve runners heading to Gowran Park, Haydock and Punchestown.

Saturday, Gowran Park

First up is Pinot Gris in the four-year-old maiden hurdle (1.42pm). He’s a nice horse who won his first on the Flat last year and he’s turned into a nice hurdler. We’re expecting a good run from him.

Then we have Bardenstown Lad debuting for the yard in the Cottage Cup handicap chase (4.35pm). We’re on a bit of a fact-finding mission there with him but hopefully he can run well.

After that, Cathedral Rocks is in the bumper (5.05pm). She was third on her first run and, hopefully, she’ll improve for that here. She should be in with some sort of a chance.

Saturday, Haydock

Yeah Man goes in the Grand National Trial (3.15pm). The trip should be ideal but we’re a little bit unsure about the ground. We’d prefer it to be a little bit better, but hopefully it’ll be okay. If we had the right ground, he’d have a good chance. If all goes to plan, he could potentially be one for the Irish National. He wouldn’t get into it off his current mark, though, so he has to come up in the weights a little bit. We’ll see how this goes, but hopefully he’ll come up a bit for this race.

Now Is the Hour is next in the Grade 2 Prestige Novices’ Hurdle (4.25pm). He’s a grand horse and is very suited to the ground and the trip.

Is he good enough for this? I don’t know quite yet, and he’s a hard enough horse to place after winning his maiden. We’re probably throwing him in the deep end, but hopefully he’ll give a good account of himself. There’s great prize-money on offer and we’ll give it a go.

Sunday, Leopardstown

Just one to mention on Sunday; Whale Harbour in the maiden hurdle (3.40pm). He put in a lovely run in at Christmas in leopardstown. Hopefully he can build on that and has a chance in the maiden hurdle.