3:15 Bath – Little Hustle
This is a restricted Novice race for Band D horses and although he qualifies courtesy of his 5,000gns sale price, LITTLE HUSTLE is certainly bred to be much better than this level. A son of Fastnet Rock out of a Frankel mare, he is related to Time Test, Passage of Time and Timepiece, all group winners. He made his debut for Andrew Balding in a Kempton maiden in February, where he made decent late headway into 3rd place after missing the break. He will have learned a great deal from that debut and should improve significantly both for the experience and the more galloping finish up the hill at Bath. The fast underfoot conditions should suit perfectly based on his breeding and he could continue the yards run of good form in maiden/novice races.
9:05 Sha Tin – Waikuku
On paper this looks to be a straight fight between Golden Sixty and California Spangle and so it may prove, but if there is a forgotten horse then it is surely WAIKUKU. He lowered the colours of Golden Sixty to win the Stewards Cup over this course and distance in January and there have been valid excuses for his 2 poor efforts in the interim. Although he does need to bounce back, he has a decent draw in gate 3 and although Zac Purton has jumped ship to California Spangle, Vagner Borges is a very able replacement. The Size yard have been amongst the winners in recent weeks and so there is a good chance that he could represent some excellent win and place value.
5:45 Bath – Moonlit Warrior
Although he didn’t pull up any trees in his 3 starts in maiden company, MOONLIT WARRIOR showed significant improvement on his handicap debut at Chelmsford earlier this month to land a first career success. That win shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, as his 3 runs in maiden company were over a clearly inadequate trip and this son of Sea the Moon was always likely to need a more thorough test of stamina and so it proved when he won with something in hand over the extended 1m5f last time. The handicapper has raised him just 3lbs for that success, which seems very fair given that the 4th placed horse has won in the interim and it also allows him to remain in Class 6 company. The switch to turf shouldn’t cause any issue and with so much scope for further improvement, there is no reason to suppose he can’t repeat the dose.
