After coming back from injury, jockey Fran Berry has eased his way slowly back into the saddle this week with a race a day. Now he’s feeling back on top form he has his eye on the main prize on Saturday at Haydock. Already riding Magic Circle in the Old Borough Cup, he would love to be riding in The Group One Sprint Cup. His agent is working hard to get him a ride, with horses such as Limato, Quiet Reflection and The Tin Man and Gordon Lord Byron racing, you can’t blame a man for wanting to be a part of it.
Going back to Magic Circle though, he had a blip a couple of races back, but on his last time out at York he bounced back in amazing style. He can easily do the business on Saturday afternoon. The ground looks like it will suit him, he has great speed and the drop back down in the length should all suit him. Early odds on Magic Circle are 11/2 with William Hill.
This is a big field and there are 30 runners on this card for Saturday, over one mile and six furlongs. Second favourite is Shrewd, the Iain Jardine trained horse has had a few up’s and downs but looks like he is back on track, so it might be tight contest unless Fran can pull ahead and get away from the crowd. Odds for Shrewd this morning are 6/1 with Ladbrokes.
There is plenty of racing around today, with cards at Bath, Carlisle, Lingfield, Newton Abbot, Southwell and Gowran Park. The next blog I do will be a sneak peek at the entries heading over for the Melbourne Cup. We have a lot of entries, Irish trainers Aidan O’Brien and Willie Mullins are heading over with some of their great horses. I will do a full rundown of the best ones and previous results they’ve had over in Australia. It’s fascinating to think these horses travel all the way to the other side of the world to participate in a race, so we’ll look at is it really worth the prestige or prize money. Especially in the wake of recent developments, where trainers are calling for bigger prize money in the European races, a really interesting topic.
Good Luck today.