Jim Crowley: ‘Hukum is in good form and Sandown is a nice place to start.’

Coral ambassador Jim Crowley previews his rides at Sandown on Friday

Our man Jim Crowley looks ahead to his four rides at Sandown and tells us what he thinks Hukum is capable of this season.

Jim rides Hukum in the 14:25 at Sandown

My first ride of the day, Hukum, has a similar profile to last weekend’s John Porter winner, Al Aasy, who won at Newbury as well as I’d hoped he would going into the race.

In an ideal world both of these horses will progress and end up being in contention for all of the season’s top mile and a half races, but Hukum is starting off here over the shorter trip of ten furlongs.

He was impressive when winning at Royal Ascot and Newbury last summer. I don’t think he quite saw out the trip in a properly run St Leger, and I’ve no doubt his future lies over 12 furlongs. So this could be a little bit on the sharp side for him, but he’s in good form, this is a nice race to start him off in and I’m looking forward to it.

Just to go back to Al Aasy, he really was dominant at Newbury, and I believe William Haggas is looking at Chester for his next run, and then if that goes well the Coronation Cup, so he’s very exciting.

Jim rides Khuzaam in the 15:00 at Sandown

Khuzaam is still lightly raced, and was an impressive winner of the All-weather Mile Championships earlier this month.

He is obviously a nice horse, but so far all his best form has come on the all-weather. He’s a strong travelling horse with a lot of pace, and I’ve always felt that seven furlongs could be his best trip, he got the mile around Lingfield but that is an easy mile.