Saturday 7th September 2019

Good racing today up and down the country. Haydock holds a great card of racing where the ground is soft. That’s a shame as some class horses haven’t been declared, I suppose it’s getting to that time of the year though.

We head to Stratford with a runner, Competition takes his chance in the feature race at 4:35, a 0-150 Handicap Hurdle.

Competition ran a cracker last Sunday when just beaten at Worcester. We don’t have much choice but to run again quickly as the handicapper will nudge Competition up the weights from next week. This is a big ask for Competition, he’s clearly in good form though and carries a lot less weight than his last couple of runs. If we can pick up some prize money, Competition will have run very well.

Staying at Stratford, Topofthecotswolds should go well in the 4:00.

It’s good to see Best Solution make his return in the 2:05 at Kempton. He was last seen finishing 8^th in the Melbourne Cup. On ratings, Best Solution has 11lb in hand over his rivals. The horse is likely to improve a bit for the run  but I’d be surprised if he lacked for fitness. A 90% Best Solution would still be good enough. The Arc could be the plan after today.

It would be nice to The Tin Man come back to form in the Group 1 sprint at Haydock. The Tin Man won this race last year but for whatever reason, hasen't found his form this season. Ground conditions are ideal for him and if finding his mojo, the double figure price will have looked big. Betting him is perhaps more in hope that confidence.