Sunday 3rd July 2016

We have a runner at Market Rasen today where Gran Maestro makes his chasing debut in the 2:35.

The plan with Granny was to go chasing after his Worcester outing, well that was the plan until the mayhem occurred at Worcester. We thought about having a confidence boosting run back over hurdles but thankfully Gran Maestro seems none the worse.

Sam Twiston Davies can’t ride today as his boss Mr Nicholls has a runner in the race. Sam has done all the schooling on Granny but champion jockey Richard Johnson isn’t a bad replacement!

The opposition is strong, Party Rock is 1lb shy of a 140 horse, he’s won big races at big meetings and is a credit to his trainer. Implusive American has been well placed by David Pipe, he gets the 4yo allowance and only carries 10-1. Granny will have to give him 17lbs in weight.

It’s handy with just the six runners lining up so plenty of space can be sort in running. It’s certainly no easy task though and you’ll not see many warmer novice chase races through the summer months.

Hopefully Gran Maestro will jump really well, get into a good rhythm and we’ll take it from there.