Saturday 18th August 2018

We were very pleased with Settimo Milanese debut for us at Worcester on Wednesday, a good second place. Settimo Milanese took some time to get used to the fixed brush hurdles, he hadn’t seen these before but worked them out come the fourth. Settimo is a staying chaser in the making, he’ll end up running over 3.5 miles plus and could be one for the regional Nationals. The going wasn’t quick enough for Cotton Club, he rolled around on the dead ground, CC needs it like a road and can't act on anything else.

Lots of racing as ever on a Saturday, jumps & flat. The York Ebor meeting takes place next week, one of the best flat fixtures of the year with plenty of races to lose money on! I’ll bid to find a few winners.

Not a huge amount to go at today, better options at York in a few days.

I hear Mehdaayih has improved plenty for his debut effort 16 days ago at Goodwood. A different effort should be seen today but he’s a short price in the 2:15 at Doncaster.

Hamada looks to have a fair chance of keeping his winning sequence going at Newbury 2:25. The further he went at Newmarket the better he was. Over at HQ in the 4;30, Sleeping Lion should have won last time out but was given a lot of ground to make up. He runs off an 8lb higher mark in this race but should be competitive against runners that look exposed bar Saunter.