Our Podcast team flag up the horses to follow across the intriguing cards at Windsor on Friday and Sunday.
Nemean Lion – 3.00 Windsor, Friday (Graham Cunningham)
I’m hoping Nemean Lion can run really well in the Weatherbys Cheltenham Festival Betting Guide Hurdle on Friday.
He’s a pretty good horse as we know but he’s got two-mile speed and in a small field, around a tight track like Windsor, and he might be well suited to that.
I’d like to see him win. Trainer Kerry Lee has pretty much got one really good horse in her yard at the moment – it’s him. The others like Henderson, Nicholls etc have got plenty so it’s a big day for Lee and Nemean Lion at Windsor.
WATCH: Nemean Lion wins well at Hereford
Deafening Silence – 1.15 Windsor, Friday (Matt Brocklebank)
Deafening Silence is a horse who has been staring at me all season. I think Dan and Harry Skelton have had the programme book out and been looking at this race for a few months for this horse to be honest.
He’s sitting on real potential after the two runs over fences so far this season and he now goes into a handicap. The official handicapper, interestingly, had him on 133 coming into the season. He’s been beaten 12 and a half lengths at Haydock and 40 lengths last time and they’ve left him on 133. So I’m not the only one expecting this one to improve now he goes handicapping.
I think three miles is going to bring out the best in him. He was an impressive winner of a Grade 2 novices’ hurdle over two and a half at Sandown last winter and then he’s come out this season and had a couple of spins over fences including last time in that hot race at Cheltenham in which he was fourth behind Jango Baie, subsequent winner Springwell Bay and the Lightning favourite Caldwell Potter.
Djelo – 3.05 Windsor, Sunday (David Johnson)
I wouldn’t be in a hurry to be backing Protektorat, particularly at the prices around 5/2 favourite or thereabouts. Would he be much shorter than that if he came here in peak form? I don’t think he would to be honest.
I know there are excuses there for that run (in the Peterborough Chase). They took an age to try him back right-handed and eventually decided to roll the dice at Huntingdon just to see if they could make a King George horse out of him, and obviously that project was soon on the cutting-room floor.
He’s got the ability to go close in a race like this but I was really impressed by Djelo and you look at these horses at Windsor and you pretty much know where you are with the vast majority of them. We know they’re Grade 2 and borderline Grade 1 standard but that’s as good as they are, whereas with Djelo we’ve seen him look really good in that Grade 2 last time, with the potential to go and win a Grade 1.
If he’s going to do that then he’s going to have to step up and take this, but I do think there’s a good chance he could.
Journey With Me – 3.05 Windsor, Sunday (Billy Nash)
There are a couple in here in the Robcour colours and they’re both also entered in the Horse & Jockey Hotel at Thurles on the same day. We’ve Fil D’Or for Gordon Elliott and Henry De Bromhead’s Journey With Me and it’d be the latter who would probably be the most interesting of the pair in my opinion.
He doesn’t really stay three miles and he’s not good enough for Grade 1s but he is a decent second-level chaser - if we’ll call him that – and this sort of trip would suit him.
He’s a little bit hit and miss but on his day he’d have a real chance in this. If he’s right then I’d give him a squeak but I would just have a slight question mark over the form of the De Bromhead horses at the moment. Although he had a really good Christmas period – he had eight winners between Stephen’s Day and New Year’s Eve – he’s 0-25 in 2025 so far. So that would be niggling at the back of my mind.
Published at 1400 GMT on 15/01/25
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