Author: Russ

The Haggas team send three to post on Tuesday Tom Marquand rides a couple at Lingfield and Cieren Fallon goes to Redcar. This follows a Bank Holiday which went pretty much to the script we wrote – the gamble on Divine Knight never looking likely to be landed and the overnight move for First Principle…

The true joy of racing lies in the journey—following the volatile highs and lows of horses, trainers, and jockeys across every tier of the sport. Whether your allegiance lies with Ballydoyle, Clarehaven, Moulton Paddocks, Spigot Lodge, or, in my case, William Haggas’s Somerville Lodge, May has once again delivered a veritable rollercoaster ride. Many punters…

Somerville Lodge have 6 runners on Monday, although Ceiren Fallon takes a day off. It follows a complete mess of a day on Saturday with 8 of the intended 14 runners not going to post. The weekend was frustrating for the yard – it began with Santorini Star Thursday evening who was pipped in the…

Even one of the most successful gamblers in the world can hit a spell of bad luck and the critical defeats of Brighton and Hearts on the football pitch has been followed by misfortune on the racecourse by the Horses in the part ownership of Tony Bloom . After the narrow defeat of Santorini Star…

17 line up for the listed Cecil Frail Stakes at Haydock on Friday but a lot of them are taking a chance in the hope of getting black type and it really concerns just 4. The 3yo Half Sovereign attempts to prove she has trained on as a 3yo but is poorly drawn in stall…

By far the best race on Thursday is at Longchamp when Santorini Star contests the newly upgraded Group 1 Prix Vicomtesse Vigier due off at 19.50, over just short of 2 miles. She faces a re-match with her conquerer on Arc day last October the Sir Mark Prescott trained Consent. Santorini Star had beaten Consent…

This season in the Haggas yard there are, as yet, no 3yo’s like Merchant last year that had already made a mark in handicaps and looked obvious Royal Ascot candidates. The upcoming week will see a fair few maidens looking to progress from maiden to Handicap company but there a couple that have shown high…

As expected the bookmakers have taken no chances with Adamlyi and he has been put in at around Even money against Runman in the Nottingham Novice Stakes at 2.20. I thought the hope of getting 7/4 or bigger was unlikely so it looks like a No Bet race. On Monday we correctly assessed the chance…

An excellent start to the week on Sunday with Valiancy winning very impressively and probably booking his place in the Copper Horse at Royal Ascot. Hopefully some of you got the early price of 5/2. Siren Star ran as we anticipated – she will be better for the run and probably needs to come down…

The end of Dante and Lockinge week is usually a very good time to reflect on the early weeks of the season with a slight pause before Epsom and Royal Ascot. From the viewpoint of the William Haggas yard it highlighted the very positive start made to the season, which has been reflected with a…