Thoughts on Marmande at Wolverhampton

With all eyes focused on the Gold Cup tomorrow at Cheltenham afternoon (12th of March), Marmande makes the trip to Wolverhampton to run in the 7.45. Tony Hamilton rides the filly in the seven furlong fillies maiden. Marmande showed a bit of promise early on in maidens but niggles have meant she has struggled in handicap company on her most recent starts. She has more ability than what she has produced on the track and we’ve taken the view that with some experience under her belt she may be able to put that to her advantage against younger horses in this maiden. She had her excuses for a poor run last time out especially as the surface at Chelmsford seemed to get very fast following heavy rain – the times of fairly ordinary contests were all quick which backed up the impression one got on walking across the track. We’ve put blinkers on her to give her some confidence in amongst other horses and keep her concentrating. She’s well drawn in two tomorrow and normally jumps well.

The race features a lot of horses with one run who can be forgiven moderate showings on account of inexperience, however trying to predict which one will make the likely step forward is tricky. Starlight Genie is the one with placed form from her two racecourse efforts – although she didn’t really improve from the first to the second run, a repeat of either of those performances should put her right in the middle of the action.