Hot to Trot: Longsdon in for another successful autumn

Flat trainer: Michael Dods

The opening days of Ayr’s Western meeting have been rather frustrating for Michael Dods given that he saddled five placed horses (including two seconds), and mid-way through the second day’s action he was still looking for a winner. He is clearly in excellent form at present, however, especially with his juveniles, who have provided him with seven of his 20 winners since the beginning of August. Dods has an interesting nursery debutant entered at Redcar on Wednesday in the form of Dream Team, who currently has Paul Mulrennan booked for the ride. Dream Team didn’t appear to get home when upped to seven furlongs at Thirsk last time but did show a bit ahead of his switch to handicaps. The return to six furlongs will be in his favour and he is open to improvement from a workable handicap mark.

Jumps trainer Charlie Longsdon

The official start of autumn is the 22^nd of September, and although the recent warm weather isn’t acting as much of a barometer to that at the moment, the fact that Charlie Longsdon is beginning to fire in the winners over jumps is a pretty good indication that the National Hunt season proper is not far away. Longsdon’s last 10 runners, spread across the end of August and the beginning of September, have yielded two winners, three seconds and a third, and his runners at Uttoxeter and Warwick next week will certainly be worth keeping an eye on. Longsdon has won the opening maiden on Uttoxeter’s Sunday card for the last three seasons, including with Drop Out Joe in 2013, and his sole entrant in this season’s race is Burrows Lane, who was purchased out of Elizabeth Doyle’s yard for £20,000 after winning a bumper at Kilbeggan in August. His fair bumper form will stand him in good stead going over hurdles and he is an interesting recruit, particularly with Richard Johnson booked for what is his stable debut.

Under the radar: Lawrence Mullaney

Lawrence Mullaney is not a name that everyone will be familiar with – he only has around ten horses in training at his base near Malton in North Yorkshire – but the form he is currently in rivals any of the other big-name trainers anywhere in the country. As well as a higher-profile success in a 19-runner handicap at Ayr yesterday with Euxton, seven of Mullaney’s last 11 runners have made the frame, which is some achievement with such a small string. Mullaney only has a single entrant in the coming days, namely Ziggy Lee in a minor event at Beverley on Tuesday. Ziggy Lee would require that race to cut up substantially to be of much interest, with plenty to find on adjusted Timeform ratings with the principals currently, though he does have the promising Adam McNamara booked to take off a handy 5 lb. Regardless of how Ziggy Lee runs, however, it could pay to keep an eye on Lawrence Mullaney’s other runners in the coming weeks.