NUMITOR won the Unibet Veterans Middle Distance Series Final at Haydock on Easter Saturday last year, and there is every chance that he can go and win it again today.

Things are a little different this year. He is a year older for starters, he is not a whipper-snapper 10-year-old any more. Also, he is 13lb higher in the handicap than he was 12 months ago, and there are not many veterans about whom you can say that.

Eldorado Allen, for example, is racing today off a mark of 143, 10lb lower than he was last year. Le Milos is set to race off a mark of 141, 8lb lower than he was 12 months ago. Numitor will race off a mark of 142 today, and he has never been rated higher.

But Heather Main’s horse has earned his new rating. Well beaten in his two subsequent races last season, after he had won today’s race, he was in great form through the early part of this term.

He won qualifiers for today’s race at Wincanton in October and at Cheltenham in December, and he was very good three weeks ago in winning a veterans’ stayers’ series qualifier at Ascot, staying on well down the outside to hit the front between the final two fences, and leaving the impression that he was winning with more in hand than the three-length winning margin. A 4lb hike for that win was not overly harsh on the face of it.

Better ground

The ground is going to be a lot better today too than it was last year, but Numitor won the race last year in spite of the soft ground, not because of it.

He had won on soft ground beforehand, but the balance of his form suggested that he was at his best on good to soft ground, and the performance that he put up last time at Ascot on good ground is up there with the best performances of his career.

He goes well at Haydock too. He has run there just twice, he won this race last year and he finished a close-up second in the Challenger Middle Distance Series Final, not a veterans’ race, on this day in 2022.

That was on good to soft ground, over today’s course and distance, at this time of year. He has lots in his favour, and his chance may have been under-rated by the market.

Stayers’ Hurdle Series Final

Earlier in the day, Thank You Ma’am’s chance in the Challenger Stayers’ Hurdle Series Final may also have been under-rated by the market. Georgie Nicholls’ horse went close on several occasions before he finally got his win on the board at Ascot just before Christmas.

Sent to the front from early that day by Olive Nicholls, it looked like Just Lucky Sivola was travelling better in his slipstream as they rounded the home turn, but Thank You Ma’am found plenty in front and stayed on well to win nicely.

Raised by 7lb to a mark of 125 for that, he was beaten off that mark back at Ascot next time, but he ran well to finish a close-up third in that race, a better race, proving that he was more than able for a mark in the mid 120s.

Winner

The race is working out well too, with runner-up Blue Hop winning next time off a 3lb higher mark and fifth-placed Greyval winning her next two, the latter a competitive mares’ contest at Cheltenham on Thursday when she was racing off a 3lb higher mark.

Thank You Ma’am probably stepped forward himself from that Ascot run when he made all to win a three-horse race at Doncaster last time.

He was challenged by Minella Rescue on the run to the final flight there, but he stayed on well up the run-in to win by three parts of a length, with the front two finishing well clear of their rival.

He proved that day that he didn’t need to be at Ascot to be at his best, and that he could operate on a flat, left-handed track on good ground, which he will have today.

Minella Rescue enhanced that form significantly when he finished second behind Julius Des Pictons in the Grade 1 Sefton Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree two weeks ago.

Thank You Ma’am is only six and he remains unexposed at staying trips. He has the potential to go beyond the mark of 127 off which he races today.

Olive Nicholls obviously gets on really well with him, and his style of racing is well suited to Haydock.

There is a chance that he will have an easy enough time of it in front too, at a track at which prominent racers are often favoured.

Recommended

Thank You Ma’am, 2.40 Haydock, 9/2 (generally), 1 point win

Numitor, 3.15 Haydock, 8/1 (generally), 1 point win