Aspire To Glory made his much anticipated return to action at Leicester yesterday following a short break after his progressive winter campaign on the all-weather.

The club's three-year-old, trained by Alice Haynes, was making his first start since finishing fifth at Kempton 104 days prior, and his first appearance on the turf since July of last year. Tommie Jakes was booked to ride, as he has done for our gelding's last four appearances, which included two wins on the all-weather.

Unfortunately, as the rain continued to hit the Leicester racetrack throughout most of the day, it saw the official going change from Good to Soft, Good (in places) to Good to Soft, Soft (in places) by the time the first race went off. And given it was Aspire To Glory's first run in over three months, he would've probably benefitted from slightly better ground.

The change in conditions did see Aspire To Glory drift slightly in the market as others who were well proven on soft ground began to be backed, but it wasn't enough to stop him putting in a very solid performance.

Race Review

Aspire To Glory broke from the stalls well and Tommie Jakes was able to settle him nicely in the middle of the pack, close to the nearside rail and just on the coattails of the leaders as they went through the early stages of the race.

He began to make good progress around halfway, but just as Tommie started to get to work on him, he seemed to hit a loose bit of ground which put a slight halt in his momentum. He recovered quickly however, and continued to make good progress under a drive from Tommie.

As he hit the furlong marker, it looked as though he was going to swoop into 3rd place, but just as he again started to gain momentum, some uneven ground led to him taking a false step and unbalanced him, which meant that Tommie just had to see him home under hands and heels. As Aspire To Glory and the Archie Watson-trained Rinnovati approached the finish line, Aspire To Glory just got edged out of third place and finished in fourth.

Taking everything into account, it was a really encouraging reappearance from Aspire To Glory, and there's sure to be more improvement to come over the summer months.

Alice Haynes had this to say this morning, following yesterday afternoon's contest:

"Aspire To Glory has come out of his Leicester race really well this morning and it was a very pleasing return to the track from him.

The ground would've been soft enough for him yesterday and he still would likely have been third had he not taken a slightly bad step half a furlong out. It was a very sound comeback all told.

I'd like to step him up to the mile next time and we wouldn't need to wait too long to do so. We'll have a look through the calendar this afternoon and identify some options for him, and hopefully we'll have him back winning very soon."