Saturday 4th August

rossom

5.35 Galway

Kick Start 12/1 NAP (Available on BetInternet)

Vincent Ward's 7 year old is probably the most interesting runner at the festival in my eyes and I think he's going to run a huge race. Kick Start has only been seen once to date in his career so far and that came back in the festival in a similar event back in 2010. That day he opened at 33/1 in the morning and was very well backed all day. He opened at 12/1 in the ring before support continued as he was sent off at an SP of 7/1. At the time he was owned by the trainer so it was clearly money from the yard. In relation to the race, he was going as good as anything with 4f to go before he unfortunately slipped up and crashed through the rail in what was a visually horrendous incident. Although the horse was on his feet nearly straight away afterwards, he's clearly had his issues as he hasn't been seen since then. I think its very, very interesting that he returns to the festival and it seems as if this has been a target for quite a while. Although his fitness is a concern, he was thought to be fit enough on debut and he certainly shaped that way so I am not really concerned about this. Another very interesting aspect is that he has recently been purchased by MCR Bloodstock and run in their colours. MCR Bloodstock are certainly not a small operation with some notable purchases including Mehdi for 320,000 Guineas and I think its very interesting that they have recently acquired him. Further to this, Kick Start will only be the 3rd horse to carry their colours (trainers other runner Circus Act will be the 2nd in the race before) with the first horse being Willie Mullins Blue Bullet who won on debut over 5f and contested a Listed contest on 2nd start so this leads me to believe they don't want poor horses wearing their colours. Declan Lavery takes the ride today and is a very positive jockey booking as he will be making his first appearance for the Vincent Ward yard. Given that Ward's licence only allows him to train 4 horses at once I think its very significant that he has held onto this fella. I think he's been laid out for the festival and although the ground is an obvious concern I'm very confident about a big showing.

rossom

I think Kick Start ran an extremely good race in 3rd considering he sweated up so badly