It’s a quieter weekend than usual for me and I have decided to head to Wetherby, with the hope that Gardefort can provide me with a Saturday winner in the 188Bet Handicap Chase.

He was travelling well on his seasonal reappearance at Newbury’s Hennessy meeting, but made a bad mistake at the cross-fence which put an end to any chance he had that day.

It was his first run after a long break and he was quite keen so he should be more relaxed here. He’s won a couple of times on heavy ground in France so conditions should not hinder him.

In the opener at Wetherby, I ride Return Flight for Micky Hammond.

He has some decent bumper form in the book but fell on his debut over hurdles at the same track in November which is never ideal. He ran with some promise last time though, so hopefully he will have learnt from that and be more streetwise here.

Venetia Williams’ horses are in great form at the moment and as well as Gardefort, I also ride Azert De Coeur for her.

He is yet to improve on his French form since coming over, but I didn’t think he ran too badly on his chasing debut at Ludlow last time out, and the step-up in trip here could suit. I haven’t ridden him before on the racecourse so I will certainly learn more about him after this race.

I’m delighted to pick up the ride on Passmore for Alan King and JP McManus in the Junior Bumper.

I actually beat her on a very nice filly for Hugo Palmer at Huntingdon back in October and she pushed us all the way that day.

She has since run another solid race at Towcester so has good race experience.

Harry Whittington’s filly Woolstone One looked very impressive when winning at Newbury in December but has to give us 7lbs here, so we shall see.

Looking back at Chepstow last weekend, Emperor’s Choice was disappointing in the Welsh National as he was slowly away and I could never get him into a good rhythm after.

He came back with a cut on his knee which wasn’t anything too serious, but probably enough to give him a little bit of discomfort and run below par. There will be other days for him.

It was fantastic for Otago Trail to win his third race in a row this season, but he was probably flattered by his winning distance of 36 lengths.

Obviously he was deemed the best horse in the race as he had to shoulder top weight, but he loves those conditions and was in his element, so handling them far better than any other horse was the main contributor. He definitely seems to be a horse on the up though.