I feel the season is starting to really get underway and the horses are looking a lot better, a lot of them coming into their coats now having had a little sun on their backs, Richard Fahey is worth noting with his two year olds and i feel David Barron, Kevin Ryan and Tim Easterby’s youngsters are worth looking out for in the north as their horses are looking particularly well. My most recent list and notes below: CRYSTAL HOPE – A very strong 3 year old filly trained by Michael Stoute who won a novice at Sandown over 1m 2f at 14-1, I loved her in the paddock she is a really well built filly who should go on to win more races CALIBURN – A lovely strong 3 year old colt trained by […]
Altior took his unbeaten record over obstacles to 17 (12 out of 12 over fences) when easily winning the three-runner Grade 1 Clarence House Chase at Ascot on Saturday. Nicky Henderson’s stable star remains 4/9 at BetVictor to retain his Champion Chase crown at Cheltenham in March. Henderson reported on Friday that a couple of his horses had scoped poorly including Supreme Novices’ Hurdle favourite, Angels Breath who missed an engagement at Haydock. The yard still saddled the winner with Mister Fisher who was cut from 12s to 8/1 with BetVictor to take the Festival curtain-raiser. Note the Lambourn handler saddled five horses on Saturday – four winners and a second suggested the stable were not all out of sorts. Henderson saddles Laskadine (1.00) in the Warwick opener and she is taken to make a […]
The Haydock executive have called a precautionary inspection at 7.30 this morning with snow the threat to the track although clerk of the course Kirkland Tellwright suggested on Friday that he was optimistic that racing would go ahead. If, as expected, racing goes ahead the ground is likely to be soft for the Champion Hurdle Trial which looks a modest renewal of this Grade 2 contest. I’m not convinced BetVictor’s 13/8 market leader Silver Streak will be as effective if the ground becomes testing and, in receipt of 4lbs from the other principles, the vote goes to Western Ryder (2.40). The selection is closely matched with Mohaayed at the revised terms on Ascot running last month and should have the race run to suit with confirmed front-runner Global Citizen in the field. The selection is […]
Wolves vs Leicester City – Saturday 12.30pm With the top six well and truly locked off, this is an important match for two sides with aspirations of finishing ‘best of the rest’ in seventh. Lunchtime kick-offs, however, can often be dull affairs and I’m not expecting much fireworks from this one. The two teams have the sixth and fifth best defensive records in the league respectively – better than Arsenal and Manchester United – while goals haven’t exactly been flowing at the other end either. Leicester’s surprise 2-1 win over Manchester City a few weeks ago is the only time since the 1st of December that they’ve scored more than once in a game. This one could go either way so my safest bet here is the half time score to be 0-0 at odds […]
A field of 12 will go to post for tomorrow’s Peter Marsh Chase at Haydock including the Grand National winner of 2017 One For Arthur (10/1 with BetVictor) although a return to Aintree in the spring is the primary objective for Lucinda Russell’s chaser who was forced to miss the great race 12 months ago through injury. Note BetVictor are paying 1/5th odds first 4 on the Haydock feature. There is the threat of some light rain at Chepstow this afternoon on ground described as good to soft at noon on Thursday. In the opener Barbrook Star (1.05) returns to the scene of his excellent third on his chase debut from a 4lbs lower mark. The selection has the steadier of 12st 2lbs and failed to build on his Chepstow run when third at Warwick […]
The recently retired Nigel Twiston-Davies trained hurdler The New One won Saturday’s Haydock Champion Hurdle Trial four years on the spin 2015-18 inc and the Grade 2 contest will be named in his honour this weekend. Nicky Henderson looks likely to saddle last month’s Cheltenham International Hurdle winner Brain Power (5/2 with BetVictor) at the weekend as he bids to cement his place in the Champion Hurdle field for which he is priced at 14/1 with BetVictor. Henderson has no fewer than six of the 27 entries for the opening day feature which were published yesterday. Three similar flat right-hand tracks stage jump racing this afternoon and we start at Market Rasen where I hope to see Garretstown (12.30) land the opener for Olly Murphy and Aidan Coleman. The selection won his sole bumper on […]
I was very impressed with the win of Aircraft Carrier at Wolverhampton on Monday evening when our selection landed a gamble (5s into 7/4) and was cut from 14/1 to 10/1 with BetVictor for the Marathon on All-Weather Final’s Day (April 19th) at Lingfield Park. The French won the corresponding race last year with Funny Kid (8/1 with BetVictor for a repeat) but marginal preference at this stage is for another Gallic raider Amade (7/1 with BetVictor) who impressed me enormously when scoring at Kempton earlier in the month. Believe it or not but there is rain – albeit not much – forecast for Newbury this afternoon although conditions are likely to be no worse than good for today’s six-race card. Ar Mest (1.10) has been raised 6lbs for his recent Leicester win, but will […]