Tom Scudamore: “I’ve been looking forward to riding him in this race all summer”

It was frustrating last year, as he kept running good races in defeat, but just came up short. We couldn’t put our finger on it, but maybe he was just a young progressive chaser, bumping into other young progressive chasers. He’s in great order at home now, and we are very happy with him.

It’s certainly a competitive race this year, but the winner would be looking to progress into a Gold Cup horse. It’s those second-season chasers you’re looking towards, who have the potential to run in those Graded races later in the season.

Other than our horses, the two that I’d fear most would be Corach Rambler and Busselton, as they could be the ones to progress to that next level.

3.40 Newbury – Bun Doran

Bun Doran is another horse I’ve never ridden before, but he’s a good solid performer. He’s won off much higher marks than this in the past, and the handicapper has certainly given him a chance, but I’d suspect Amarillo Sky is going to be a tough nut to crack.

Bun Doran is 11 now, but he still looks to retain plenty of ability, as he showed when winning off this mark at Doncaster in March, and I’m hopeful we’ll be competitive.

Sunday

3.00 Carlisle – Upton Road

Upton Road is a horse I like a lot. He’s had his problems, but as a result he hasn’t got many miles on the clock and whatever happens on Sunday, I suspect he’s going to pop up somewhere along the line.

We’d probably prefer to run him over shorter, but options are limited with him, as he needs heavy ground and we’d like to keep him going right-handed. He did win a point-to-point in Ireland, so hopefully the trip won’t be too much of a problem.

Tom

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