Aspire To Glory heads back to Wolverhampton this evening for their Class 6 Handicap over 1m½f (20:00) as he aims to make it back-to-back victories for the Coral Racing Club.

Read our Raceday LIVE Preview below and join us ahead of the race for all the build-up and live updates from the track across our social channels on X (@CRCofficial) and Instagram (@coralofficial).

Raceday LIVE Preview

Aspire To Glory continues his campaign at Wolverhampton tonight, returning to the course and distance where he scored his first win of the year. On that day, he was faced with a tough draw in stall seven, similar to today's wide draw in ten, but Kieran O'Neill managed to rouse him along from the gates to the leading pair in the contest where he stayed for the duration, until eventually pulling clear and winning well by just shy of two lengths. 

WATCH: Aspire To Glory lands his first win of the year at Wolverhampton

Since that day, he's competed a further four times, winning twice and finishing second once, with his latest effort resulting in a dead-heat for first place following another impressive run at Chelmsford. That result made it the fifth different all-weather track that he's been victorious at, out of the six in England, and leaves just Southwell left to tick off.

WATCH: Aspire To Glory forces a dead-heat in the final strides to land his fifth victory
Today's race will be the 32nd of Aspire To Glory's career and will be his sixth run at Dunstall Park. As previously mentioned, his only victory here came over the same distance that he takes on today, whereas all of his other victories have come over the seven furlong trip. The relatively tight bends at Wolverhampton certainly lend themselves to Aspire To Glory's skillset, as he normally breaks well and tends to be in the leading group when the bends arrive. 

River Alwen, who is also drawn relatively wide in stall eight, is likely to rival Aspire To Glory for the lead early on in the race, with Value Added widest of all likely to try and move across the field to take up a prominent position. All three of the obvious pace angles in the race being drawn wider in the field could play into Aspire To Glory's hands, with horses in stalls one, two and three likely to be held up in the middle of the pack, or towards the rear. 

Aspire To Glory is one of five horses in the race that have been successful over course and distance before, with Royal Observatory scoring here on his last outing at the end of April. Value Added and Have You A Minute have won at Wolverhampton before but never over today's distance and Valkyrja, Masterofgreygoose and Aljezur are all maidens and will be looking to land their first career victory this evening.

WATCH: Raceday video update from trainer Alice Haynes
Chris Dixon, Racing TV analyst, previews this evening's contest at Chelmsford and gives his verdict on the race

Aspire To Glory was well positioned but showed real tenacity to grab a share of the spoils at Chelmsford when last seen almost four weeks ago and is clearly a horse at the top of his game. Up another 2lbs in the handicap for that latest win, he’s approaching a career-high mark now but it was a lifetime-best from him on the figures last time and with the performance fully backed up by the clock so there’s no knocking the form. The return to a longer trip is perhaps a slight negative as he does seem at his peak over 7f, but it would be folly to label the trip a big negative given he won over course and distance in February. A bigger issue could be the draw which isn’t ideal out wide in stall 10, though it’s not an insurmountable start point and with a limited amount of early pace in the race I suspect he could end up adopting an advantageous early position.

With all that considered he heads into the race with a sound each-way shout in an open but not very strong race. Pessoa was behind Aspire To Glory back in February when the pair were 1st and 4th respectively and Adrian Wintle’s consistent gelding now has a pull at the weights and arrives in good form following a narrow defeat last time. River Lawn is also in good form and a positive ride over this trip could see him go close while last time out winner Royal Observatory could go well but is regularly slow to stride and may not get a strong enough pace to aim at. As such the weights-dropping trio of Masterofgreygoose, Have You A Minute and Snooze Lane are feared more with market support for any of that trio potentially significant.

Trainer and Jockey Statistics

Alice Haynes has remained in excellent form recently, scoring with five runners from her last 28 (18% strike-rate), with one of those being Clipsham Noble who won at a massive price of 40/1 at Brighton yesterday afternoon. The trainer has also had 5 winners at Wolverhampton so far this year, with Aspire To Glory being one of those in February, taking her total number of career winners at Dunstall Park to 33.

Kieran O'Neill has had a series of near misses in his last few rides, finishing 2nd on two occasions in the last week, including when just beaten by a nose on fellow Coral Racing Club horse, Pop Star. He has scored once recently, albeit in an Arab Race at Lingfield on Sunday. He recently surpassed 1000 rides for Alice Haynes, and he's been victorious for the Newmarket trainer on 108 of those occasions, with eight of those victories coming from 101 rides this year. It's a similar story at today's venue, with Kieran riding 1097 times at the course and returning with 105 wins, of which five have come from 66 rides this year.

Aspire To Glory's Owners for the Day

As winners of the recent Owner for the Day competition, 10 lucky Coral Racing Club members have been given the chance to enjoy an exclusive owners experience for Aspire To Glory's run at Wolverhampton this evening.

What's included in an Owner for the Day prize?

 

• Free racecourse entry
• Access to the Owners & Trainers enclosure
• Access to the Parade Ring before the race
• Meet Aspire To Glory and the Alice Haynes team
• Take home a 10% share of any prize money he wins

Aspire To Glory's Owners for the Day following his victory last time out at Chelmsford

Prize Money

Today's Class 6 contest is worth £6,200 in total, with the winner set to scoop a £3,245 for their lucky owners.

2nd: £1,522 | 3rd: £760 | 4th: £380 | 5th: £189


Get paid as a WINNER in CASH up to a stake of £/€10 if your horse finishes 2nd by a head or less behind the winner in today's 20:00 at Wolverhampton – click here to find out more.

     WOLVERHAMPTON 20:00 – LATEST ODDS     

We hope you enjoyed reading today's Raceday LIVE Preview. Don't forget to tune in just before 20:00 to watch Aspire To Glory's next run for the club live on the Coral Sports app.