West End Boy has been given his first official handicap mark of 99 which we're happy with.

He’s done everything we’ve asked of him so far, in that he’s improved with every run, as even when he fell on his second start, he’d ran well until that point and it was a tired fall on testing ground.

He’s been in fine form at home since his second-place finish at Wincanton, and now we’ve got him a nice handicap mark, there could be another opportunity for him in the next few weeks, but there is a balance to find – as the one thing I wouldn’t do is risk him on ground that was too quick.

We’ll see what happens in the next week or so in terms of the weather because as things stand, it’s pretty wet in a lot of places, as we’ve seen with Newton Abbot being called off this week.

We’ve taken our time with him, and even if we don’t run him again this season, we’ve got a lovely horse to have some fun with next season.

Joe Tizzard, Coral Racing Club Trainer

What is a handicap mark?



(Credit: British Horseracing Authority)