Don’t Mind If I Do tries to gun down a Mullins hotpot at Ludlow tomorrow

April 22

We didn’t manage a winner last week, but Brioni made a pleasing reappearance over a mile at Newmarket’s Craven meeting and will improve when he goes back up to 10 furlongs, while Paradias ran a terrific race to finish fourth at Newcastle on All-Weather Finals day.

Add to that pair last month’s Stratford winner Believitanducan’s brave second at Kempton, and Loughville, having her first run since November, finishing her comeback race at Musselburgh in impressive fashion, and there plenty of reasons to be encouraging about our dual-purpose team in the coming months.

Fingers crossed we can get back on the winning groove tomorrow at Ludlow, where Don’t Mind If I Do in the novices’ hurdle. Granted, he has More Coko, a Willie Mullins-trained odds-on shot as the red-hot favourite, but that one got rolled over at odds of 1-8 at Plumpton last time, so is not invincible.

Furthermore, Don’t Mind If I Do, who was a smart bumper horse last season, gets 5lb from the Irish raider, and, though we have not yet seen the best of him over hurdles so far, he is an exciting individual whom Alan has always held in high esteem.

Alan said:”Don’t Mind If I Do won well enough at Wincanton, but I should never have taken him back there in January as he floundered on the heavy ground and did not jump as well as he can.

“I did withdraw him on the day at Newbury subsequently, but that was because the going was too quick. However, Ludlow have good to soft ground at the moment, so I hope we will be able to get him going again.”

 Rockola is also Ludlow-bound for the mares novices handicap hurdle. She won at Southwell and Huntingdon, but Alan then stepped her up to three miles plus back at Huntingdon in early February and that plan back-fired.

Going that slower pace over the longer trip meant that Rockola proved hard to settle, but dropping back to two miles and five here looks a positive move, and Alan says that she is a small mare who needs time between her races, so the two and a half month break will have done her good.