Captain Quint set for Wetherby

CONFIDENCE. You can’t see it, touch it or feel it. But it’s an oh-so-important commodity that has such a marked effect on a sportsman or sportswoman’s performance.

Horses are no different, especially chasers. When they’re high on the stuff, they can ping their fences and gain lengths on their rivals in a way that takes your breath away. More often than not, it’s the key to winning races.

It’s fair to say I’ve spent plenty of time wondering how we can get CAPTAIN QUINT back to his very best form. I was disappointed with his first run for us at Kelso four weeks ago, there’s no two ways about it. He’d been really pleasing me with his work in the lead-up to that race, goes well fresh and was where I wanted him to be fitness-wise. But he made a mistake at the first fence, followed it with a couple more later in the round and in the end his jumping just went to pieces.

It’s vexing, because he’s a horse with loads of ability. If we can put all the pieces of the puzzle together, there’s no doubt in my mind that he’ll be winning races off this mark of 118. It’s my job now to try to put all of those pieces together!

Craig Nichol has ridden Quint in all bar one of his 17 races so far, but with Craig heading up to Ayr on Saturday, Ryan Mania will be on Captain Quint for the first time in Wetherby’s 4.08. As a former jockey myself, I try not to tie riders down to specific instructions. Ryan’s a brilliant horseman, a Grand National and Cheltenham Festival winner no less, so I’ll just let him go out there and ride Quint as he finds him. In that regard, Saturday will be a bit of a blank canvas for us.

Captain Quint and Craig Nichol – photos kindly supplied by Dennis Penny @ www.pennypictures.co.uk

Ryan’s been coming into Hazelrigg regularly recently to give us a hand now that the season is really starting to get going. He’s done plenty of schooling on Quint. We’ve even popped him over a few hurdles, just to mix things up a bit and try to help build the horse’s confidence again. He’s been working well since Kelso, is fit and looks a million dollars in himself.

The big thing now is getting him to transfer everything he’s been doing and showing us at home to the track. We’re putting cheekpieces back on at Wetherby, just to try to give him a little bit more help. The first time he wore them for Rose, at Musselburgh in February, he toughed it out well to get the better of Ryan on Massini Man in a tight tussle! He jumped well that day, too, so I’m hoping they’ll have a similar effect again because his jumping has let him down in three runs since that Musselburgh win.

It’s a competitive race, with plenty of proven winners and some improving younger types in opposition. Jonjo O’Neill’s runners are always to be feared here and his Itso Fury might well be the one we all have to beat. It would be lovely to think we could. 

But what I’m really looking for is Captain Quint and Ryan to gel, run a nice race together – and hopefully give us some positives to take forward into the rest of the season.

Cheers,

Paul