IN THE wake of Borderlescott's Group 1 win in the Nunthorpe last week, Robin Bastiman said training good horses to win races was easy. Training the not-so-good to win races was the hard part of the job.
Such is the huge gulf in ability between the West Lothian-owned flying machine and the rest of the inmates in Bastiman's Yorkshire yard, Borderlescott has to give his work companions a considerable start on the gallops just to make things interestin
g. Exactly how big the stagger is if and when he and Valiant Romeo ever lock horns is unclear, but anything from considerable to gigantic looks a decent spread bet.
Valiant Romeo is proof of his handler's assertion that finding the right race for moderate animals ain't easy and it's now three years since Bastiman last managed to work the oracle for the gelding. He may, however, have picked out the right contest for the eight-year-old at Hamilton this afternoon when Royston Ffrench can steer the selection to a rare success.
Having scored on his latest start, Glenveagh isn't such a stranger to the winner's enclosure and he can complete a treble for Ffrench in the finale, the jockey also fancied to land the opener aboard Count Almaviva.
Lumping on short priced runners from Sir Mark Prescott's yard can be a risky business but unless either of the unraced rivals Buddhist Monk faces in the maiden are a cut above the ordinary, the Newmarket raider should land his first success.
Grazeon Gold Blend just failed to justify our confidence in him last Friday but still ran well enough to deserve another chance while Even Bolder has looked on the verge of winning in his last few starts and is napped to do so at Sandown.
The decision of Scottish Grand National winning pilot PJ McDonald to switch from the jumps game to the flat has been fully justified and having partnered Persian Peril to success at Ayr yesterday, he now needs just two more winners to ride out his claim. Should Grazeon Gold Blend win, PJ could find himself a fully fledged jock as he partners the strongly-fancied Five Wishes in the previous contest.
The full article contains 372 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
