Kevin Stott’s Blog: Is it Redemption Time at York?

It hasn’t been a bad week at York so far, with both my rides on Wednesday producing good runs for a place.

I’ve a few nice horses left to ride at York, and one on Saturday at Newbury, so I hope one or two of them can go one better and get a win on the board.

Friday, York

Persian Dreamer is up first on Friday in the Marygate (1.50pm). She was very impressive at Newmarket on her debut last month, winning by three-and-a-quarter lengths. We’re pleased with how she has come out of that race, and she’s had plenty of time to prepare for this one. To have her with a favourite’s chance at York is really exciting and well deserved. I was delighted with how she handled her race at Newmarket as she quickened away from the field especially well, under just hands and heels riding. She’s a big filly with plenty of size and scope about her and lots to look forward to. We think there could be more to unlock with her.

Second is Redemption Time in the five-furlong handicap (5.15pm). He was pretty disappointing on his reappearance at Thirsk in April, but we think that was mostly down to that fact that he didn’t like the soft ground at all. The better going we’ve got at York, which is now proper summer ground, will help him to do what we know he can. He’s a horse who’s pretty hard to judge as he hasn’t been the most consistent, but he has gone well previously with a tongue tie, so has one back on for this. We know there is ability there, and we hope that he bounce back to his best.

Saturday, Newbury

Forca Timao is my ride in the London Gold Cup (3.00pm) at Newbury. He’s got quite a nice light weight for this and runs in a handicap for the first time off a mark of 92. He should improve from his first run of the season at Newmarket, where he ran fifth over 1m2f, and we think he can take a step forward. It’s a valuable handicap, worth £100,000 in total, which he should be competitive in, but he might need some luck in the running. Last time out we had to make the running as no one else was keen to go forward, but that doesn’t really suit him and he didn’t stay the 10 furlongs as a result. This time, I want to have some cover so that he can get his head down that bit more. We’re trying him over 10 furlongs again on a flat track, which should help him.