Nigel Twiston-Davies’ William Hill Blog: Hoping to Thunder home at Aintree and Sandown

It’s been another pleasing week with three winners; Supasunrise at Warwick, Manimole at Newbury and, most recently, Lightning Flash winning his debut bumper at Ludlow.

With any luck, this weekend’s runners can keep the winning form going.

Aintree, Saturday

Josh The Boss starts us off in the 2m4f novices’ hurdle (12.25pm). He’s a very nice young horse who won well first time out this season and, hopefully, he can improve again. He’s given a handy seven pounds by his rider, Jamie Neild, and this isn’t looking like a particularly strong race, so he should be able to hold his own once again. The one slight worry is that it’s slightly softer ground than he has had in the past but, hopefully, he will manage.

Then Master Chewy is back in the two-mile handicap chase (2.10pm). He won so well at Aintree last time that we thought we’d try again! It’s only been 13 days since that race, so whether or not that will prove to be too quick a turnaround, we don’t quite know, but he’s been showing us great enthusiasm at home so we think he will be alright. He’s up 10 pounds in the handicap on the back of his reappearance, which I think is fair, and we’ll keep him at two miles for now, although I’m sure he will stay further in time.

Lastly, we have Clap Of Thunder in the bumper (3.50pm). We like him a lot and he pleases us at home. He’s favourite here, but you never know what the other runners – which are all debutants, like him – have done at this stage. His dam is a half-sister to the 2011 G1 Hatton’s Grace winner, Voler La Vedette, so his pedigree suggests plenty. He’s a nice, big horse and he’s for sale, so watch this space!

Sunday, Sandown

First up is Spirits Bay in the two-mile maiden hurdle (1.40pm). He has won two bumpers, we’re very pleased with him and he has schooled very nicely at home. He should have a good chance here because, as far as we can see at the moment, the sky is the limit. This race isn’t particularly special and, while he might have to contend with the handy-looking runners of Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls, he’s certainly one of the smarter horses in the field.

Good Boy Bobby finishes off the weekend for us in the three-mile veterans’ handicap chase (3.25pm). He’s a real favourite at the yard. We thought that he’d rather blown up during his last run, when winning at Chepstow, but he got a second wind right at the end, and that’s when he ran on to win. He’ll be that bit fitter now as a result so, hopefully, he can reproduce that form on Sunday. Lord Du Mesnil might be the main rival here, but we’ve got a run under our belts this season already, whereas he hasn’t, which will definitely stand in our favour.