Mountain can scale heights at Donny

I rode five winners in Qatar this week, and defended my jockeys title with 63 victories – more than I had in Britain last campaign.

It has been a lucrative winter for me, but I’m going to knuckle down here in England now. MOUNTAIN ANGEL (6.00) for Roger Varian is my best ride of the day at Doncaster, after his decent second at Wolverhampton last time.

He led that day under Jack Mitchell, but at this stage of his career he doesn’t have to. It will be his third run, and he should run well in the China Rose Of Bawtry Maiden Stakes. STORM ROCK (6.35) needs almost everything to fall right and I think he would appreciate rain ahead of his run in the Ziniz Italian Restaurant Of Bawtry Handicap.

FROZEN LAKE (4.50) is my first ride and it is fair to say he needs to build markedly on his previous efforts if he is to win.

Last week I talked about Eminent looking a Derby horse after the Craven.

Having ridden in the Greenham at Newbury on Saturday, Barney Roy is a very good horse, too. He really looked a 2,000 Guineas type. James Doyle seemed very happy with him afterwards and it was interesting to read and watch some of the analysis afterwards.

I saw James Willoughby and Simon Rowlands discussed the length of Barney Roy’s stride, which is around 7.5 metres.

Measuring stride length is something a few people have looked at over the years – I seem to remember reading that the American great Secretariat had a big stride and Frankel famously did, too. It is another way to determine how horses move and how easily they travel.

There must be something in it, and it will be interesting to see if this is used more in future.

Harry Bentley is sponsored by Racing UK, the leading horseracing channel, which recently launched on YouView 231. See www.racinguk.com/youview for more.