The Betway ambassador reviews his difficult weekend at Ascot, and pays tribute to Nick Skelton's third-place finish at SPOTY...
After three falls on Saturday, I don’t think there’s a part of my body that doesn’t have a bruise on it. That’s the way it goes, it wasn’t the best of days.
Ascot review
Unfortunately, it was just one of those weekends that didn’t go to plan.
We felt that Pull The Chord had a good chance in the opener, so to fall early on in the race was a real shame.
The same can be said for Go Conquer in the Silver Cup. He just ran out of room at the first and there wasn’t a lot we could do about it.
Thankfully both horses got up and seemed OK.
As for Ballyoptic, he just lost his back legs. It’s a little hard to understand exactly why, but these things happen and all I can say is that he ran a great race.
He jumped and travelled really well, and coming to the last he wasn’t stopping.
We were a little bit up on Unowhatimeanharry at the time of falling and I don’t think there would have been much between us at the line.
I’m not saying we would have gone on to win, but I really don’t think there would have been much in it.
Ballyoptic will probably now go for the Cleeve Hurdle and then the World Hurdle and I think he’ll have really strong claims.
Harry Fry’s horse is of course the one we still have to beat.
Rock The Kasbah was the highlight of my Friday at Ascot where he ran a good race to finish second in the novices’ chase.
He travelled and jumped well, but couldn’t match the pace of the winner from four out. He was a little one-paced, but it was pleasing to see that he stayed on again.
I think three miles is definitely where we’ll be going with him next. We’ve got some nice big days ahead of us as we continue to find out what he’s all about.
Haydock fog
The main thing to say about the racing at Haydock is that, from what I understand, the jockeys were able to see everything fine.
I can understand the frustration for officials, punters and bookies, and it obviously takes away from the racing itself.
But none of us can change the weather – if it’s sun, rain, snow or fog, we seem to love talking about it.
Thistlecrack in the King George
Obviously Colin Tizzard now holds a very strong hand in the King George and he must be an extremely short price to train the winner again.
Cue Card is the proven horse and you know that he’s going to jump and stay.
But I’ve said before that I think Thistlecrack is the best racehorse in training, and if his jumping holds up in the King George then he’ll be very hard to beat.
Kempton’s flat track will definitely suit him, too.
Unfortunately Coneygree has been ruled out, which is also a bit disappointing for me.
It was great to see him run well on his reappearance after a long time off the track and the yard will know if he’s right or not.
If he’s not 100 per cent, then you really cannot throw him into a race like the King George.
Once he does return to his best, then he’ll be very hard to beat. I know the Gold Cup is the ultimate aim for Sara and Mark Bradstock so fingers crossed he will be spot on for that.
Nick Skelton
Nick is a living legend. Somebody that I grew up watching and I’ve got to know him, Dan and Harry really well.
He’s worked so hard over a number of years and it was great to see him get some recognition for that at the Sports Personality of the Year.
When you realise how long Nick’s been going, it makes you feel lucky that you’ve managed to get to the top after just 22 years.
