It was nice to land a winner on Sunday at Pontefract with Coedana delivering the goods under Connor Beasley.
It looked like it was a matter of how many lengths she was going to win by when turning for home. She was cruising on the outside, and I was very confident. It turned into squeaky bum time when the runner-up stayed on strongly, but Coedana had enough in the tank to fend her off.
Rhythm N Hooves 5/1 (1pt) – Windsor 7.17
With there being a lot of rubbish to go through on Monday, it's just one selection once again.
This class 3 event is the best race of the day, and I found it quite tricky. It's understandable why the favourite is in the position of the market that he is. He won over course and distance last time, but this is a much tougher race. I wanted to give a chance to Glamorous Breeze, but she is carrying 10st 1lb, which was enough to put me off.
In the end, I went with Rhythm N Hooves, who is definitely not the force of old, but the handicapper has given him every opportunity to bounce back to form. He has recently competed in better class races than this, and apart from last time, he was running to form. The handicapper has dropped him from 90 to 81 rated since March, and this is his first race in a class 3 since February.
Billy Loughnane has been booked, and he has built up a good relationship with this horse. Billy has ridden Rhythm N Hooves to two wins and some other solid efforts, so it's a booking that gives me more confidence.
If you were to look past his last run in the Epsom Dash, his run in a class 2 race at Windsor was actually very good. The winner was Redorange, who was clearly well handicapped. The second has since won a similar race at Windsor in good fashion. Even though he was three lengths behind the winner, the form probably stacks up well against today's opposition, especially off a 5lb lower mark.
Stall 1 would be a good draw for a horse who likes to go forward. It can be a huge problem if you don't break from the stalls in good fashion, as they all come across to the rail, and then you're behind a wall of horses. It's not an ideal scenario to be in, but I have faith in him getting a good start.
GambleAware