Paul Nicholls: Brave Knight my best chance of a Sunday winner at Ascot

Paul on Constitution Hill

It was great to see everybody at Kempton to watch Constitution Hill because there's normally only one man and his dog on an evening meeting like that at Kempton, so it was good to see a good crowd there. It just shows that quality horses bring people out, it was good to see.

In terms of his performance he did what he had to do under Ryan Moore. I suppose he's now qualified for handicaps but there's talk of him going to Newbury next for the John Porter Stakes.

He was impressive on Wednesday night but it will be a whole new ball game going for a Group race, or whatever they decide to do on turf, so it will be interesting and I think it will be easier to judge him when he does that rather than winning a Novice race around Kempton on the all-weather. But yes, he was very impressive, as he was at Southwell, so the next run will be very interesting.

Paul on the lack of rain

I haven't got too many runners at Ascot on Sunday as the ground has turned good, good to firm in places, which is disappointing really for a grade one track to have to put up with ground quite as fast as that, but they've been watering a lot so there's not a lot they can do. So the ground is tighter than we'd all like so I'll only have a few runners.

We could do with some more rain, there's exactly a month left of the season on Saturday up to Sandown, it soon comes around and there's some fantastic racing in April so we could do with some rain again just to ease the ground.

I've got a couple of targets for the remainder of the season. I'm on 82 winners so I'd like to get to 100 and I'd also like to get to the £2m in prizemoney, both are doable but we need some rain quickly. As I said, that's the reason Ascot's a bit sparse on runners at the weekend.

Saturday Runners

16:55 Uttoxeter - The Gem State (NON-RUNNER)

He seems to be a very nice horse. He finished second in a point-to-point and the horse that finished third that day, Handin Manypockets, won at Chepstow on Thursday.

He had a very good racecourse gallop at Wincanton about a month ago where he finished a length behind another horse that won at Chepstow on Thursday, Stick To The Board, so that was a nice piece of work, so we quite like him.

On his bare point-to-point form he's got a bit to do, but his work at home has been good, he's very fit, so I'm hoping he'll run very well.

Sunday Runners

15:05 Ascot - Innamorato

He was third at Newbury over two miles, he's been dropped 3lbs for that run and now runs off a mark of 114. He ran a nice race at Newbury, ran well, and obviously he's got a chance again.

16:15 - Joyau Allen

I'm hoping we get a little drop of rain for him. Arguably he's quite nicely handicapped and he wants three miles, but he does want some cut in the ground so we'll make sure it's okay and safe before we run him.

17:25 Ascot - Brave Knight

He loves the better ground so he'll love it on Sunday. He's not well-handicapped but then I didn't think he was well-handicapped the last day and he won. I'm sure 2m5f will be ideal for him, he's not gone quite as far as that before but he looks like he wants a trip.

He will love the ground and Freddie Keighley is riding well, he's taking a nice 5lbs off, and although it's tough to say which is my best chance of the weekend I'd probably say Brave Knight each-way.

17:25 Ascot - Afadil

He's another who will love the ground. It's a bit of an experiment, up in trip, the furthest he's gone is 2m3f about two years ago and he's been campaigned mostly over two miles. We'll just have to hope he gets the trip and if he does it will open a few other doors for him, but he will like the ground on Sunday.

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