Saturday 8th September 2018

Henry Smith won nicely for his owners at Stratford on Tuesday. It’s never much fun when you have a horse that’s goes off at such a short price. Pleasingly it was a routine win and Henry Smith won as he liked. The prize money was a nice pot too, £5500 secured for Henry Smith’s owners.

The win was our third in five days and continued the good form.

Lot’s of rain is forecast today, Haydock will be bottomless. This is a shame on such a big day for the racecourse. It will be good to see Harry Angel again, he runs in the Group 1 Sprint Stakes at 4:15.

Mekong has form on a heavy surface and looks to have every chance in the first race at 1:50. It’s maybe a meeting to tread carefully at though with conditions as they are.

We're Stratford bound once again, Competition is having his last race of the year and will be heading for his holidays after today. Competition has had a great season, winning twice and placed three times for his owners. His run last time out was his best yet despite just been beaten. Giving away so much weight to West Drive was a super effort.

Competition must do the same today, he carries a double winners’ penalty in this valuable novice worth £6498 to the winner.

Panko looks the big danger. He makes his hurdles debut and is a smart flat horse, 85 rated. It won’t be easy giving Panko so much weight especially if he’s taken to hurdles. Hopefully Competition has one last big effort in him after a busy time of things.