Saturday 9th May 2015

The change in weather over the past week has thrown up quite a few surprise results, Chester in particular has been very difficult whilst the Derby & Oaks picture isn’t getting any clearer.

Soft ground at most of the meetings today but Ascot does seem to have missed most of the wet stuff and still races on a decent surface. The Victoria Cup is the feature race and a real pin stick job, however I thought So Beloved at 18-1 EW could be a little over priced.

The horse made its seasonal debut last time out for new trainer David O’Meara and showed it retains all of his ability with a decent 2^nd place. With that run under his belt So Beloved should have tightened up a little whilst trainer and jockey will know a bit more about him. With luck in running and providing a low draw is where you need to be So Beloved can run a fair race at big odds.

Over at Haydock there is a decent word around for Firmament in the 2:15, the Jeremy Noseda trained horse will enjoy the soft conditions and there seems to be some market confidence behind him. Priced at 3-1 it seems a decent run is hoped for.

Tough racing today but hopefully the above can go ok, the York Dante meeting takes place next week so hopefully the weather will dry up and the Derby picture might become a little clearer.