Lucinda Russell’s William Hill blog: Hoping Derek Fox is back to ride Ahoy Senor at Cheltenham

William Hill ambassador Lucinda Russell looks ahead to her runners at Warwick and Kempton this Saturday, including Apple Away in the Grade 2 Hampton Novices’ Chase.

Warwick, Saturday

Salamanca Bay only has one rival in the opener (12.05pm), but we think he’s learning all the time. Derek [Fox] said he learnt plenty at Ayr and he’ll improve leaps and bounds from that run. He’s had some decent form in the past, so hopefully he can go well.

We run Sextant in the handicap hurdle (12.40pm). He was a very good horse on the Flat, and hopefully he can make a nice hurdler for us. He’s a bit quirky at home, so he takes a bit of handling but any horse that is rated 100 on the Flat clearly has plenty of ability. He could be well-handicapped, but we won’t really know until he runs!

Apple Away is in great shape ahead of the Hampton Novices’ Chase (2.24pm). It’s clearly a very competitive renewal of the race with Broadway Boy very impressive at Cheltenham and Grey Dawning beating us at Haydock, but she’s really improved from her first run. We were delighted with her at Leicester because she got better and better as the race went on and by the end she was jumping like a stag.

These big races should be competitive, but we’re really looking forward to running her. If she can improve as much as she did from Haydock to Leicester then I’m very hopeful she’ll go really well.

Kempton, Saturday

The Lanzarote Hurdle (2.42pm) is always very competitive and this year is no different. We’ve got Serious Operator who would have an each-way squeak. He definitely needs good ground as he showed at Doncaster, but he won that race nicely and he deserves a crack at this. You can never be particularly confident in these sorts of races, but he’s in great form at home.

We’ve also got Caithness running in the closing handicap hurdle (3.50pm). He was all ready to go at Musselburgh but had blood in his nose at the start so had to be withdrawn and we thought this race was a good spot for him. The form of his third at Cheltenham looks solid and conditions should be in his favour.

Derek Fox

I spoke to Derek [Fox] the other day and the doctors have said he should be back in four weeks. Hopefully that means he’s okay to ride Ahoy Senor in the Cotswold Chase because he gets on so well with him. It’s very unfortunate for him given how busy we are at the moment, but it’s an injury which shouldn’t keep him out for too long.

Hopefully he is back in time for Cheltenham, but it looks like it will be quite tight. Patrick [Wadge] would be next in line but he could be riding one at Doncaster, so we might need to find someone else. Brian Hughes has ridden him before and he’d be the obvious choice, if he’s available.