I won't be at Newbury tomorrow as I am having a weekend in London highlighted by watching Wimbledon at home to Bromley at 3pm on Saturday and then a Stamford Bridge stadium tour on Sunday. It's an intriguing card at the Berkshire track however.
13:20 - Credo looks set to go off favourite here but she's been put up 7 pounds for winning at Exeter last time out and I wonder if she liked the return to a slightly sounder surface that day. Sam Brown (9/2, 1pt win) continues to race off lofty marks but Chad Bament is value for his 10 pound claim and has ridden this old timer before, when second in the final of this series at Market Rasen in January. He's gone well at this track in the past and will be well at home on the surface.
13:55 - Nap Hand (9/2, 1pt win) looks a contender here and I like his chances at the prices. Epinephrine will probably go off favourite after hacking up at Kempton 22 days ago off a 9 pound lower mark, but that was a pretty modest race and he'll be faced with a softer surface here. Alan King's Nap Hand however, was a winner at this track on heavy ground last year and has been butting heads against some potentially useful types from the Henderson yard since sent hurdling. This is his handicap debut and he could well be better than his opening mark of 118.
14:30 - It's hard to look past Jasmin De Grugy (11/10, 1pt win) really. Anthony Honeyball's 6 year old has swept all before him in the past year having won all of his last 5 starts in quite convincing fashion. This is by far his hardest task to date but we still don't know where his limitations lie and the visual impression he gave last time out indicated that he has more to give.
15:05 - This looks a pretty decent little handicap hurdle and preference is for David Pipe's progressive 6 year old Jurancon (5/2, 1pt win). He looked a horse to follow earlier in the season when running The Kemble Brewery close on hurdles debut before seeing off the classy Tripoli Flyer next time out. He wasn't at his best when turned over at odds-on in December but bounced back to form to defy a penalty at Newbury last time out in decent style. He's a proper galloping type and this track suits him well. He has to give weight away but to horses with questions to answer and Jurancon looks the most uncomplicated horse in the field.
15:45 - Billytherealbigred (5/1, 1pt each-way) is just such a likeable horse and I fancy him to take the big prize of the afternoon. He ran a mighty race at Cheltenham in January only for the hill to be his undoing late on. There is no hill here and he races here off a lovely low weight. Sure, this is a tough race and it will be difficult to dominate but the galloping nature of the track should suit him and he will love the testing going. There are dangers aplenty, and I think the biggest one is Le Milos (10/1, 1pt each-way) who won a veteran's race last time out to show there is still life in the 10 year old yet and if he continues in form, then he should be going close back at the scene of his greatest triumph.
16:15 - I'm going to take a chance that Go To War (8/1, 0.5pts win) can bounce back to his best here. It's interesting that connections are happy to go again with him in a similar sort of race to which he totally blew out of last time. He went off 7/2 favourite that day and nothing seemed to go right. I think he's got plenty of talent, it just needs to be coaxed out of him. He's trained by a master and at the prices, I'll take a punt.
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