Newbury Preview: Hymn ready to hit the high notes

John Gosden is a trainer in red-hot form and looks to have major claims of landing a double at Newbury today with the unbeaten duo of Western Hymn and Muwaary.

The former runs in the feature race at 3.05 and created a huge impression when scoring on his debut at Kempton back in December.

After being slowly away and quickly finding himself at the rear of the 13-runner field he made good headway on the outside to chase the leaders approaching the final furlong and only had to be shaken up before quickening clear to score by 2 3/4 lengths.

The turn of foot he showed marked him out as a colt with enormous potential, and the son of High Chaparall holds entries in the Dante Stakes at York as well as the Epsom Investec Derby.

He is currently a 33/1 shot with Coral for the latter, and if he is to prove himself a live contender will need to win this conditions contest with some authority.

Judged on manner his Kempton success there is every chance of him doing so,and he is taken to get the better of Andrew Balding’s Scotland before going on to better things.

Like Western Hymn, Muwaary also won impressively on his debut and looks potentially better than his opening mark in the 7f handicap mark at 3.40.

The son of Oasis Dream showed plenty of pace before being shake-up to score with far more in hand than the 1/2 length winning margin suggests in a 14-runner maiden over course and distance last July, leaving the impression that he would be a three-year-old to follow this season.

He has the scope to be far better than his opening handicap mark of 82, and he should not be found wanting through lack of fitness given that his handler has hit the new season running and saddled five winners from his last eight runners.

There is also a decent 5f sprint handicap on the eight-race card (4.15), and Dutch Masterpiece looks capable of defying top weight and making a winning reappearance now dropped in class.

Gary Moore’s charge was a highly progressive sprinter last season, scoring in handicaps at Chester and Newmarket before landing the hat-trick in the Group 3 Flying Five Stakes at the Curragh.