Nigel Twiston-Davies’ William Hill Blog: He’s back to Guard his Dreams

This week got off to a pleasing start, with a double on Monday at Warwick, courtesy of Smiling Getaway and Ballycamus. There should be lots to look forward to with both of them.

Looking ahead to this weekend, we have handful of runners at Doncaster and Cheltenham.

Doncaster, Saturday

Our new recruit, Say Goodbye, runs in the 2m½f Grade 2 Yorkshire Rose Mares’ Hurdle (2.05pm). She’s just come over from Ireland and has won a race in America. As this is her first run for us, and she hasn’t been seen on the track since November, she has it all to do. There are very few races for a horse like her, rated 132, so this is just a starting point, really. She’d be wrong in the weights in a handicap, so we’ll just hope for a nice run and progress from there.

Then we have The Newest One in the Grade 2 River Don Novices’ Hurdle (2.40pm). He’s been a revelation over hurdles this season and has really come into his own. For some reason, he’s flourishing. He’s a nine-year-old now, but I suppose some of us just get better with age! This is a hot race, but, on ratings, he deserves a go. There will likely be a couple of horses in here that are too good for him, but he could be competitive for a place at least.

Cheltenham, Saturday

Our only runner at Cheltenham this weekend is Guard Your Dreams, who runs in the 2m1f Grade 2 International Hurdle (3.00pm). We haven’t seen him out for a while as he gave himself a little injury last year, so he’s taken a bit longer to come back, but he looks in very good shape now. With this being his first start of the season, we think he will probably be outclassed here, but he did win this race in 2021, so has got form and he’s come down in the weights since then.

There’s good money on offer for placing, which is perhaps more realistic. It’s not easy to find races for a horse of his class, so this has to be his starting point and I would just like to see him run well.

On the Joint License News

There has been a lot of talk this week about Willy joining me on the license, but nothing is confirmed and there is no definite timeline.

While it’s something we have discussed in the past, there are a lot of hoops we’d have to jump through first and there’s no concrete plan at the moment.