Sam Twiston-Davies’ Blog: Master Chewy could be worth a nibble 

Leading National Hunt jockey Sam Twiston-Davies previews the weekend’s racing action in Newbury, and offers a reflection on last week’s Dublin Racing Festival.

The Dublin Racing Festival

Being at the Dublin Racing Festival last week was a good experience. The crowds were great and the racing was brilliant. Unfortunately, Weveallbeencaught was very disappointing, but at least he’s come out of the race fine and he’s back into normal work now.

He did two canters this morning, seems fine and we’ll now make a plan going forward. I couldn’t say whether Cheltenham is still on the cards off the back of that run, but he’ll tell us over the next couple of weeks.

The pick of the performances over the two days was possibly Il Fabiolo in the Irish Arkle for Daryl [Jacob]; I thought that was very impressive.

Rare Edition wasn’t his complete self in the Sidney Banks at Huntingdon on Thursday. He was fantastic at Kempton, and he just seemed to lack a bit of that at Huntingdon, so I’m sure we can bounce back and he’s sure to have some big days ahead.

Newbury, Saturday 

I’m looking forward to four nice rides at Newbury on a big Saturday of racing.

Sam Brown (2:25pm) is still a highly-rated horse who has achieved a great deal in his time. He did a lot of his winning in testing conditions earlier in his career, but then won really well on good-to-soft at Aintree last spring, so he’s hopefully one that can adapt to different situations. It looks a very competitive race, with Hitman probably the one to beat on all known form. He was disappointing in the King George, but he had his reasons why, so if he can bounce back to his previous form then he’ll be tough to beat.

Master Chewy (3:35pm) is a tricky one to call. We thought he would have won when he fell at Ascot back in November, and he’s been a little bit disappointing since. He’s a strong traveller and a good jumper, so a race like this should suit. With the top horse coming out he sneaks in nicely at the bottom of the handicap so we thought it was well worth taking a chance.

Way Out (4:10pm) ran well at Taunton two starts back, but then didn’t step forward to get competitive in the Grade 2 Ballymore at Cheltenham last time. He needs to bounce back from that, but he’s shown enough to suggest he can be competitive in this.

Lastly, I’ve got one for Martin Keighley, whose horses have been running very well recently. Shinji (4:43pm) won a small field bumper at Fakenham in good style and will hopefully be able to prove to everyone that he’s got a good engine.