Olly Murphy: inside track on my Saturday runners and more

We’ve had a really good start to the season, having had 50 winners already, including a success at Chepstow on the first proper weekend of the National Hunt season, and also a winner at Cheltenham last week too, both of which were great results. 

The young horses have started off very strongly too, so numerically we are certainly ahead of where we usually are for this time of year, which is a big positive for the team. It’s especially exciting for us as we haven’t really run a lot of horses yet, with many of the best ones still to debut for the season. 

Before the new term began, I was pleased with the stock we purchased through the summer and, together with the horses I had been sent to train, I felt we had grown a really strong team of horses with which to go to war. Hopefully, the success we have already seen is a sign of things to come and, when the rain starts to come down properly, that’s when things will really get going for us. 

I’m lucky to have a fantastic team around me at home and some top class facilities which, coupled with being another year older and more experienced as a trainer myself, gives me plenty of confidence as the season progresses and I hope that the team can carry on as we have started. 

While we’re in a good spot in second position on the Trainers’ Championship table, I’d say we’re a year or two too early to be dreaming of titles at the moment! We’ll just keep concentrating on numbers and winning nice races and see where we end up. I wouldn’t be putting myself in the same league as Dan Skelton, Paul Nicholls, Nicky Henderson and Willie Mullins just yet, but we finished fifth in the championship last year and I’d love to get one place closer this year, even though it would mean knocking one of the greats off their pedestal, which will be extremely hard to achieve! I have such respect for the four of them and it’s great to be taking them on at the weekends now in better races, which is where we want to be. We’re an ambitious team, and we’ll keep working hard!

Wilstar runs in the novices’ hurdle at Wetherby on Saturday (12.40). We love him. He’s got no experience, so whatever he does this weekend, he will improve massively in future. He’ll only run this weekend if they get some rain up at Wetherby, but he’s a horse who has done everything very nicely at home and we’re looking forward to getting going with him. Fingers crossed he will be the sort to be featuring on some of the better days of the calendar. He’s definitely one of my best novice hurdlers. 

Then we have Strong Leader in the Grade Two West Yorkshire Hurdle (2.22). He’s pretty much ready now, but he does tend to come forward from his first run, though he does have a good record fresh. He’s had a pipe opener at Worcester Racecourse on a schooling morning, which has hopefully blown the cobwebs away. I think he’ll appreciate the track at Wetherby too. I’ve got a lot of respect for Potters Charm in the race, but I still wouldn’t swap him for my lad! All being well, his next stop will be defending his crown in the Long Distance Hurdle at Newbury. 

Go Dante carries a lot of weight in the 3.30, but he is the best horse in the race, having won the Imperial Cup. He’s another who will want plenty of overnight rain and hope he can run really well, but he is the type to come on for a run also. 

Wa Wa is in the 4.05. He’s been ultra-consistent over hurdles and this is the first time I’ve run him over fences, though he does have good back-form over the larger obstacles in Ireland. This race does look a trappy affair, but he’s in good form and should handle the ground fine. 

Elsewhere, Resplendent Grey goes to Carlisle for the Listed Intermediate Chase on Sunday (2.37) on his way to the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury. He’s in very good form and did well over the summer. I think his work this Autumn has been very, very good, so I’d like to think he has improved. The trip at Carlisle is inadequate at two and a half miles, but it’ll open his lungs up. As much as I would love him to win this weekend, this race is more about sharpening him up for Newbury. 

Sticktotheplan is intended for the Greatwood Hurdle at Cheltenham’s November Meeting, which will be his first run in a handicap. He’s come out of Chepstow well and looks like a horse on an upward curve. He had shown us a lot at home, so we weren’t surprised at all to see him win like he did in the Persian War. The one thing I don’t think he wants, though, is very soft ground, so his next run will be ground dependent. He’s really one to look forward to, though. 

It looks a competitive little race! Hewick has had a prep run, which will stand him in good stead, while Protektorat is also very, very good on his day, though he might prefer it softer underfoot. I think that, if Paul Nicholls has Pic D’Orhy wound up, he will take a lot of beating. When he is good, he is very, very good and he’ll like the ground too. If he’s ready to go, he’s the one they all have to beat in my mind.