Scudamore says: “I like Elegant Escape a lot this Sunday”

Top jockey Tom Scudamore talks exclusively to Coral about his rides this weekend, as the 35-year-old gears up for a trio of races at Chepstow.

It’s a funny time of the year at the moment in some ways as the summer horses are now having a break and the winter horses are just starting to come out. David Pipe didn’t make many entries this weekend and as a result it’s a quiet weekend for me.

SATURDAY

4.10 Chepstow (Tote Silver Trophy) —  La Rocher

He’s starting off life in handicaps this season up at the top end of the weights. He’s 5lbs higher than his last winning mark, but he’s a grade one winner so is a very good horse. If we got a bit of rain before race time I’d be pleased as it’s a case of the softer ground the better for him. In what is as usual a very competitive race he has an each way chance.

 SUNDAY

2.50 Chepstow – Elegant Escape

I like Elegant Escape a lot. I won on him at Chepstow and then had a decent race at Ascot. He ran a great race in the Albert Bartlett where we finished seventh not far behind the likes of Augusta Kate. He has a little bit to find on handicap ratings but we are hoping for plenty of improvement for the switch to chasing.

You can usually tell the horses that should improve for going over fences, based on the way they jump hurdles. Good hurdlers are often very fast and slick when they jump hurdlers, whereas there are other horses you ride over hurdles that just make you think “I can’t wait to ride this over fences”.

It’s not that they jump the hurdles deliberately but they do use themselves in a different way when jumping, and the technique is more akin to jumping bigger obstacles.

When you ride those horses it’s exciting as you think the fact that they’ve done so well over hurdles shows what a good horse they are and how much better they could be chasing. It doesn’t always work out like that but generally you can tell which horses are going to be good chasers.