Hag Tag 18th January 2025

The stable is geared up for Yaroogh’s attempt to capture the UAE 2,000 Guineas next week , Tom Marquand will take the mount. More on his chances as the week progresses

So far in January the yard has sent out 2 winners from 11 runners which would show a loss of over 6pts to level stakes and justifies our cautious approach. This is very much in line with previous years.

I firmly believe that Carbine Harvester was a fortunate winner of the Lingfield Nursery and that form should be treated with caution. Stable companion Choreographic, with linked form backed up that view when getting well beat at Kempton on Wednesday. ( Hopefully a few of you may have been the winner Sweet Fantastic trained by Hugo Palmer , suggested in the article at 6/1.).

The one horse from the yard to take out of the season so far is Purple Rainbow who won at 5/6 and showed marked improvement from her debut run which was unconvincing albeit with a degree of promise. She improved her RPR probably by us much as 20pts from her debut. Although still needing to settle better, she powered through the line, recording a fast time and Marquand couldn’t pull her up.

Providing she learns to settle, she will stay 10f maybe 12f and is potentially listed class.

Nu Trend members will receive an exclusive list of 5* Haggas horses to follow throughout the season and Purple Rainbow is the first to appear on the track this year will be now be included on the list.

The other horse to run on Wednesday was Mystery of Love. I read some tipsters had put this up saying it was a steering job! This is not how it works with the Haggas yard ! The horses are only judged on track performance and the run of Mystery of Love at Southwell, although not entirely disappointing lacked sufficient improvement from her first run and indicated a degree of awkwardness when asked to quicken.

At Kempton, unlike Purple Rainbow, when asked to go and win her race she hung fire and didn’t go through with it. It’s too early to write her off completely, but she is one to be weary of until proving otherwise on the track.

Onto the weekend and i fully expect Santorini Star in the 1.25 which is the final race on the card on Lingfields morning meeting, to run a big race – I will provide a detailed update on as soon as prices are available for the Class 2 Handicap.

The only other entries are Blue Secret on Friday at Southwell and Fior des Bosco at Wolverhampton on Saturday i can say now that both will be NO Bet recommendations as both seem totally unable to cope with racing and are two of the yards most disappointing horses.