Sean Bowen Saturday rides blog: 'He's one I'm really looking forward to riding'

1.10 – Hold The Serve

Hold The Serve has been in great form this season. He was favourite for a valuable race at Cheltenham at the start of the campaign and was hugely disappointing, but his work beforehand had been good. He had a wind operation straight after that run and he seems to have really turned a corner since.

I thought he was quite impressive at Wincanton, and he backed that up with another strong performance at Market Rasen last time. He looks to have a very fair opening mark, and I think he should be very competitive here. He’s one I’m really looking forward to riding.

3.00 – Lexington Wood

Lexington Wood runs in the Dovecote and it’s obviously a big ask for him, especially as he remains a maiden. If he doesn’t prevail here, he may still end up a novice next season, and the experience he has will help.

He’s a horse with plenty of potential. He works well at home, and he schools very well too. It would be no surprise to see him run a solid race and finish in the first four somewhere, but there’s no doubt it’s a tough task in this company.

3.35 – Rising Dust

Rising Dust runs in the Ladbrokes Trophy and it’s always interesting when Emmett Mullins sends one over. He’s been a revelation since joining the yard and he’s done nothing but win.

The question now is how far he can go. He started off on a mark in the high 80s and now he’s up above 127, so life is only getting tougher. He’s gone up plenty in the weights and he’s going to have to keep improving, but when horses get on a roll like he has, you never quite know where the ceiling is.

4.05 – Loughderg Rocco

Loughderg Rocco is an interesting one. He’s been off the track for a long time – nearly 1,000 days – so it would be a great training performance if he could win this.

He showed plenty of class earlier in his career, but it’s never easy to come back and win off a mark of 134 after such a long absence. That said, his work at home has been quite good. With that amount of time off, it’s hard to be overly confident, but there’s definitely ability there.

4.40 – Otie’s Friend

I finish off in the bumper with Otie’s Friend. Nick Schofield has made a very good start to his training career, and his horses seem to be flying.

This one shaped with promise on debut at Huntingdon and it’s always likely they’ll improve for that first run. He may need to step up again on what he showed there, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he came forward and ran a big race.

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