Keith Donoghue’s William Hill blog: Hoping Ella can lay down the Law at Windsor

William Hill ambassador Keith Donoghue previews his two rides at Windsor on Friday as well as looking at Cheltenham targets for a few winners from last weekend.

Review of last weekend

Looking back at last Saturday at Fairyhouse it was great to see Gavin (Cromwell) have a four-timer and I was delighted to be on board two of them.

Sixandahalf got the ball rolling with a good performance in the mares maiden hurdle. She had been schooling well at home so we thought she would jump well. She settled really well in the race and picked the lead up easily turning in and kept that up all the way through the line. She had previously run to a high level on the Flat when finishing third in the Irish Cesarewitch so it was good to see her replicate that over jumps. I’m definitely looking forward to her going to the Cheltenham Festival for the mares’ novices’ hurdle. Obviously, that will be a much stronger race, but she has every right to be the price she is so fingers crossed she can put up another big performance.

Although I didn’t win the feature Dan & Joan Moore Memorial Handicap Chase on the same card it was a brilliant result for Gavin getting the first three home as it is one of the strongest handicaps of the season. It was great for The King Of Prs to get his big day, but I feel really bad for Path d’Oroux because he is one of those horses that is probably not well handicapped, but he always runs so well without winning one of those good ones. Both horses will now skip the Dublin Racing Festival and head straight to the Cheltenham Festival. Path d’Oroux might go up in trip there to two and a half miles for the novices’ handicap chase and I’d say The King Of Prs will go for the Grand Annual. Path d’Oroux has a win at Cheltenham to his name, but you would have wanted to see him win that day. The race at the Cheltenham Festival will be completely different, but I think it is the right path to go with him as going up in trip might just help his jumping a bit.

It was the first time that I had sat on my other winner on the card, Noble Birth, but I got a nice easy lead on him and he jumped from fence-to-fence and stayed on well. It is hard to know how strong the race was, but he couldn’t have done it much easier. He is a grand horse and is one you should be keeping an eye on in handicaps come the spring. There is a nice novice handicap at Navan and he might go there next. He could be an Irish Grand National horse or something along those lines.

Windsor, Friday

Today I’m riding at Windsor for the first time and I’m looking forward to coming over and seeing what it is like.

I think Law Ella has a great chance in the mares’ handicap chase (2:25pm). She had a good run the last day at Limerick and hopefully she will go close. She always seems to run well without winning, but hopefully this will be her day. I would have thought this race might not be quite as strong as the one she contested the last day. However, I wouldn’t know the English form as well as I know the Irish form, so I’m only going on the paper form. I can’t see the tight nature of the track being a problem for her and I’m really excited about her chances.

My other ride on the card is Tyre Kicker in the last race (4:08pm). He ran well after a long lay-off at Galway, but he probably just bounced a bit in the Troytown, when he was well fancied, and he had a couple of excuses the last day back at Navan. This looks a very competitive race, but I do think he will run well as the slight drop back in trip from three miles will help him.