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<br>A race with a good history of producing top class horses and an interesting renewal this afternoon, but the thing that caught my eye was the decision to run Tastahil in this race, when both the trainer and the owner have other runners.
Tastahil made his debut in the 7F Listed race at Newbury last month that was discussed at length on here and showed promise finishing 6th. He confirmed that form with a straighforward win in a 1M maiden at Kempton ten days ago, showing a long stride and a pleasing attitude.
Those two runs have seen him given an official rating of 82 by the handicapper, which strikes me as very generous indeed. Compare it with the mark of 89 given to the Meehan runner in todays race who had to work much harder for his maiden win at Lingfield.
If I owned Tastahil, I’d want to run in a nursery off that mark before moving up in class if good enough. And Tastahil is indeed entered for a £20k 1M nursery at Newmarket next Tuesday, sponsored by the UAE Racing Federation.
But he runs here, and if he wins or is even placed close up, his handicap mark is going to rise by at least 10lbs. I can’t make up my mind if that’s a tip for todays race or just a counter productive piece of placing.
I won’t bet today, but if Tastahil wins, I’ll be feeling that a golden bet has gone missing for next Tuesday!
AP
Maybe a naive thought, but would the owner of T be as interested in running him in a nursery as opposed to testing him at this level?
very interesting race though
Like you say Alan, looks to have been let in light off 82, Valdan, who gave Tastahil a 2 lb beating in the Washington Singer was second off 89 at Southwell next time despite not getting the run of the race.
Clivex, that may be the case but highlights the problems with Maktoum horses. They haven’t got a bloody clue on how to place them and this race in no more valuable or prestigious anyway in terms of black type. The Maktoums would be far better off with the likes of Aln scouring the programme book than Angus Gold et al.
This is one of my favourite races, & for what it’s worth this Tastahil has confused me as well, for different reasons.
I know it’s obvious, but when the entries came out I kept looking at the Tregoning horse Aqaleem. His horses do well in this race. I though it ran really well on its debut, it avoided winning & picking up a 4lb penalty. I had visions of Richard Hills riding it today, but now he’s riding Tastahil & Martin Dywer is riding Aqaleem. I can understand why, Hills riding for his dad & Dywer rides alot for Tregoning, but as R.Hills is No 1 jockey to the owner, so you have to assume he thinks he’s on the best one?
I was thinking/hoping Aqaleem was the best one.<br>
<br>You were right Colin, Aqaleem was much the best of the pair as Tastahil dropped away tamely after leading and showed (yet again) that the handicapper is no fool.
AP
Oh what a lovely surprise to log on tonight and, amid all the Cheltenham jumping stuff, to find this thread!
So what’s wrong with jump racing???
<br>PS The venue for the pre racing drinks for next years Kelso meet up is almost in the bag ;)
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