Sport

Lat Hawill can break drought at Ripon

LAT Hawill can snap a near year-long losing streak with victory in the Weatherbys VAT Services Handicap at Ripon.

The five-year-old is now with Keith Dalgleish after spells with Marco Botti  and Ger Lyons, during which time he has failed to really live up to connections’ expectations.

An eight-length winner of his sole juvenile start, Lat Hawill was highly tried at three, taking on the likes of Kingman in the 2014 Greenham and Karakontie in the French Guineas before his campaign came to a premature end in June that year.

Sent to Lyons’ yard, he made it third-time lucky for his new team when scoring at Gowran last June but he failed to really build on that when upped in class and returned to Botti in 2016.

An initial conditions race third at Wolverhampton in February proved something of a false dawn as he failed to sparkle in either another start at that track or in the Lincoln at Doncaster and was duly sold at Tattersalls at the end of April.

Snapped up by current connections for 36,000 guineas, he repaid a small fraction of that with his initial third at Newcastle just over two weeks ago and off a mark of 95, he is starting to look as though he could now be reasonably treated.

Saeedan can recapture his sparkle back on the Polytrack in the 32Red Casino Handicap at Kempton.

He has posted his two best performances on artificial surfaces, finishing second at Chelmsford in March before hitting the target at Kempton in April.

Tried on turf at Doncaster in May, Saeedan did not really put his best foot forward and eventually finished well down the field, with his rider reporting that he was not happy with his movement inside the final furlong.

Trainer Marco Botti understandably reverts to the all-weather to try to recapture his best and, hopefully, the decision should pay dividends.

Birkdale is the pick in Hamilton’s Neilsland And Earnock Julian Watson Memorial Maiden Stakes as he has his first start for David O’Meara, while Talent To Amuse can make it third-time lucky in the 188Bet.co.uk Maiden Auction Stakes at Lingfield.

They race over jumps at Ffos Las where Azure Fly can oblige in the Ray Gravell & Friends Charitable Trust Handicap Chase.