The Week Ahead, Aintree
Brian Hughes blog 07/04/2023
Plans are still up in the air with plenty at the moment, but it looks like I’ll have a nice book of rides at Aintree next week. Where Donald McCain is situated means the emphasis is more on Aintree than Cheltenham and a lot of horses have been trained with next week as their main target for the season. I schooled plenty of them on Thursday morning and they seemed in great form, so I’m really looking forward to it.
One to Watch
Maximilian in the Sefton Novices’ Hurdle is probably the flag bearer and seems in great order. The form of his win at Doncaster has been franked in the Albert Bartlett at Cheltenham and, while some are saying Stay Away Fay was a bit unlucky, in my eyes it was no fluke. If anything, I thought my horse was idling a bit on the run-in and there was plenty more in the tank, so I think he won fair and square.
Aintree has always been the plan and he’s one of our better chances of a winner next week.
Grade One Hopes
Minella Drama will take on the likes of Fakir D’oudairies in the Melling Chase. We’ve kept him fresh for this and we’re hopeful he has an each-way chance. It’s a Grade One and on ratings we’ve got a bit to find, but he’s been good on his last two runs and, if he can improve again, he won’t be without a squeak.
Carlisle, Saturday 8th April
3:05pm
The reason I’m off to Carlisle on Saturday is to ride Grain D’Oudairies in the novices’ hurdle. We’ve always liked him, and he won nicely the last day.
We’re stepping him up half a mile in trip which is a new challenge for him, while he’s got the penalty for the Bangor win too, so he’ll need to improve to win this. His work at home has been good and, even though we’re taking on some talented rivals, I wouldn’t swap my lad for anything else in the race.
3:40pm
Next up I ride The King of May in the handicap chase. He’s certainly handicapped to run well, and I was on board when he won for the first time in the UK back in 2019 at this course so let’s hope we can do it again. He only ran 10 days ago, so connections obviously feel he’s over that and, if he is, then he’s handicapped to be competitive in a race of this nature.
4:15pm
My final ride is Yellowstone Park in the handicap hurdle. I can’t say I know too much about him, but he won well at Leicester over 2m4f and ran a good race when second over three miles at Market Rasen last time, so the trip here should be no bother to him.
He looks the type who just keeps galloping and hopefully the stiffer track at Carlisle might just suit him a touch better than Market Rasen. Alex Hales tends to do well with these types of horses and hopefully he can run a good, solid race.
