Today we have action at Lingfield and Thurles providing they pass inspections, Newcastle with some jumping and a late all weather card at Southwell.
Before we get to the nap of the day it feels worthwhile to reflect on the two news bombshells we got yesterday around the Cheltenham Festival. The loss of Constitution Hill was somewhat expected but no less frustrating for racing fans. Seen sparingly this season hopefully we get the chance to see him at least at Aintree or Punchestown before he heads to grass this, Summer.
The other horse we won’t be seeing at Prestbury Park is Marine Nationale. The Arkle favourite was having to bounce back from a sub par effort at the Dublin Racing Festival but sadly requires six weeks rest which will end his season early. Both were significantly popular with ante post punters and remind us all just how hard it is even this close to have your selections line up let alone win!
Fingers crossed this time next week we are buzzing about the first day with no more significant missing cast members to the week long drama. You can see our revised non runner no bet Champion Hurdle and Arkle markets here.
Nap Of The Day
The card at Lingfield is a shade sparce of runners but is one I have taken a decent look at as I am heading to the course to chat over the market movers on Sky Racing. The 15:02 will be the race my nap runs in which will be Home Free for the Skelton team. I was at the track just two weeks ago when he finished a fair second to Hidden History. That run displayed to me the horse can handle the soft ground and this kind of race just looks too good an opportunity to go one better with those in opposition looking fairly moderate.
