Joe Tizzard Saturday Blog | Ascot and Haydock
We’ll have to go some to beat last weekend’s results, when all five of our runners won, but we’ll do our best! The horses are clearly in great nick and we’ll just hope to keep that going on another big day.
12:25 Ascot – Etna Bianco
Etna Bianco ran a really nice race first time out at Cheltenham this season, finishing third. He was staying on well that day, so the extra furlong or so here shouldn’t be a problem and with mine generally improving for their first run, this fellow should do too. He’s a lovely young horse and I think he goes here with a great chance.
12:55 Ascot – Bobbi With An I
This mare is another having her second start of the season after a good fourth at Exeter last time. I had thought about going chasing with her, but she gets in here off a lovely low weight and I’m sure she’s crying out for this step up in trip to almost three miles. If she proves me right, I can see her having a decent each-way chance at least.
14:05 Ascot – Rock My Way
Rock My Way proved his liking for a staying trip when he finished fifth in the Coral Scottish National last season, so this distance will be no problem. There is a slight question mark over the fact he’ll be going right-handed here, as most of his best form is on left-handed tracks, but he’ll come on plenty for his Cheltenham run last month and he should be competitive.
14:25 Haydock – Hartington
Our one runner at Haydock is Hartington and I’m looking forward to running him. He stayed really well at Carlisle when winning at the start of the month and he goes an extra half mile or so here, but he looked as if he would stay further and this race has been the plan since that win.
This is a big step up in class, but he’s in here off bottom weight and if he gets the trip I can see him running a big race. We also have the champion jockey, Sean Bowen, booked to ride, which is clearly a big plus as Sean is riding unbelievably well right now, so we have lots in our favour.
15:15 Ascot – JPR One
JPR One came out his run in the Haldon Gold Cup well. It was a funny old race and he did OK to finish third, but we’ll try something different here. We’ll put the cheekpieces on him and look to bounce him out and be prominent early on. He should love the ground and the track, he is in good form at home and he’s more than capable of figuring in a race as valuable as this.
Joe Tizzard, Coral Racing Ambassador