FOUR runners on a busy Sunday up at Musselburgh, where it will be good to get motoring again after a slow start to February. The fixture list up north hasn’t been bursting with opportunities for our horses - and the weather hasn’t been too kind when we’ve wanted to run either.
Musselburgh will be racing on soft, good to soft in places, but here that’s usually a fair bit less testing than when you get the same descriptions elsewhere - and there's a dry day forecast tomorrow. GET WITH IT (2.15) wants better ground and we’ve been saying that all winter, but with the rain never seeming to go off he’ll take his chance again here. Dropping further down the weights, he’s been eased another 3lbs since his last run just over a month ago, so he’s definitely being given a chance by the handicapper on the figures these days, but he’d still likely need conditions to dry out a fair bit to be seen to best effect.
I wasn’t sure whether Musselburgh would suit CAPTAIN QUINT (3.20) last time, but he coped well with it, finishing second to a progressive winner who racked up a three-timer that day. Kept on the same mark and in a race which is down in grade, now we know he acts at the track we can approach it with a bit more confidence than we did a few weeks ago!
Captain is a horse we’ve always thought a lot of and while he’s carrying 11-12 in this if he gets into a decent rhythm then he’s capable of a big run.
LIMERICK LEADER (4.20) had two entries last month but both times at Catterick and Newcastle the ground got too deep for him to take part. Hopefully things will dry up for him and he’ll finally get going again. He’s one who has probably paid for his consistency over the last few seasons, finishing placed five times so he’s stayed around the same mark for a while.
His last two runs, both at Catterick, have seen him handed a bit of relief and stepping back up in trip should benefit him. Still only seven, he’s got a decent bank of experience as a chaser now and we’d like to think he can make his mark in this grade. He’ll wear a visor for the first time to help him concentrate a bit better.
A recent one of Cliff (right) limbering up
CLIFFS OF DOONEEN (4.50) is another who had an aborted comeback on account of the rain recently so we’ll be thrilled to finally get him back on track. Absent for nearly 550 days after injuring a tendon in the summer of 2022, he’ll likely need the run this weekend. A promising hurdler who was progressing well before his layoff, he’s shown us plenty at home to suggest he retains his ability so hopefully we’ll see that tomorrow and we can then start thinking about the spring.