Trainer Ross Burdon is back with his weekly kwiff blog, reflecting on a recent near-miss at Kempton, as well as previewing Mesaafi’s Chelmsford bid later this evening.
Ross Burdon Racing: Mighty Mesaafi Primed (Oct 16th)
It’s fair to say we’ve had some stinking draws this year, having runners drawn in wide berths seems to have been a theme of the whole year but it can’t be helped, it’s just very frustrating when it seems to be almost every runner being drawn wider than ideal.
Ross Burdon Racing: High/Low Point
Last Friday evening Waistcoat ran at Kempton, racing over 7furlongs there having finished a good fourth in a stronger race the time before over a mile. Waistcoat ran a huge race, only going down by a head after being forced to drop in deeper than we originally wanted as we were drawn 13 of 13 runners, Rhys Clutterbuck was very decisive, taking back when he knew he wouldn’t be able to get a handy position and even though we were further back than ideal he was giving ground away unnecessarily.
Turning for home Rhys had more horses in front of him than behind, but waistcoat picked up magnificently once he straightened up and, even despite being pushed further wide by the favourite, came thundering down the straight, only just failing to catch Dream of Mischief. The winner was very well handicapped on old form and was who I thought would be our main danger, so in essence we were beaten by the right horse and even though our horse has ran a brilliant race it’s hard to take coming so close and not getting there.
Ross Burdon Racing: Mighty Mesaafi
Today, Mesaafi goes back to Chelmsford where, arguably, he put up his best performance of the season in June when winning a Skybet Sunday Series race. He’s only three pounds higher than that day, but, again has to contend with a wide draw, this time in stall nine of ten.
He’s in fantastic form, although he can get quite stuffy in between races so the gap of six weeks between runs isn’t ideal, but he’s done plenty of work in the run up to the race so he should be fit enough to run up to his best, if he does he should run a big race. Evening Saigon is the favourite, bringing potential rather than proven form to the race, he could prove very well handicapped from 85 but hasn’t ran for over a year so fitness could be an issue.
High Point again travels north to Haydock tomorrow afternoon. Contesting their 1m6f class 3 handicap after winning over course and distance three weeks ago. The second that day, Andrew Balding’s Contacto, again re-opposes and is a pound better off after being beaten a whisker by us last time.
That could be enough to swing the form into his favour this time around and ideally we would have wanted more rain, but, High Point is in good form and deserves to take his chance in this higher grade. Hopefully Tom Marquand can get him into a nice rhythm on the front end again and we can be competitive in the final furlong.
Ross Burdon Racing: Week Ahead
Next week looks pretty busy also, with Crest Of Light heading to Yarmouth on Tuesday (if he gets in) where he will wear a visor for the first time after disappointing at Nottingham. On Wednesday Waistcoat will return to Kempton and step back up to a mile in the hope he can go one better than his second place there last week. We could also run a couple towards the end of the week and the weekend but those aren’t definite runners yet.
By Ross Burdon
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