Safe to say it’s a busy Tuesday of Racing with four jumps cards at Lingfield, Fakenham, Hereford and Limerick plus two all-weather meetings at Wolverhampton and Chelmsford into the evening.
Nap Of The Day
Having had a look at most of the cards I nearly passed over Fakenham given the small field sizes but the Mares Handicap Hurdle at 2.30 caught my eye. This two-mile race has a runner from Lucy Wadham’s yard.
Her runners at this track always warrant respect and if you were to have backed her runners blind here to a £1 stake you would be +£47.52. She has a strike rate of 25% at this track and arrives off the back of a couple of recent winners.
Bryony Frost is booked to ride and also goes well here with a 25% win rate here in recent seasons. The horse in question is Pretending who since going jumping has run well enough without yet winning. The form of the second at Cheltenham in April, looks very strong with the horse who beat her by a length going on to beat Sunday’s Greatwood Hurdle winner at Sandown. The third behind her in April has since won again in Ireland, so a handicap mark of 103 looks very fair in the context of her form and I expect that she can score over jumps for the first time today.
Betfair Chase Early Look
No each-way fancy for me today so instead it was worth using the space to reflect on yesterday’s news that Paul Nicholls is sending Bravemansgame to Haydock.
Two things I initially found curious about this entry was the impact it could have on his chance of retaining his King George crown on Boxing Day and the choice of jockey. The jockey choice of Daryl Jacob was cleared up swiftly by Paul explaining that Harry Cobden has 6 rides at Ascot on Saturday, one can only assume they are 6 very good chances as no rider would want to miss out on the chance of winning a grade one race on one of the best staying chasers in the business.
I am more interested in the potential deviation from the original plan, which now seems him running in this race. Just how much a Betfair Chase will take out of a horse four weeks before Kempton we don’t know. I for one certainly won’t be questioning the logic from the multiple-time Champion Trainer. He seldom gets these big calls wrong, and I just wonder if he is keen to right the wrong of the Charlie Hall second at the earliest opportunity. Either way I am delighted to see it, as the likelihood is that we get to see a horse who will vastly improve the quality of the race significantly.
The Must Watch Race Of The Day
A few contenders for this pick today but the 1.45 at Lingfield looked of interest with BetVictor ambassador Jamie Snowden running both Git Maker and Super Survivor in the Intermediate Chase over just shy of 3 miles.
The field is then also made up of Just A Dime, Morning Spirit and Eureka Creek. I expect both Git Maker and Super Survivor will land some nice staying chases this season and both could potentially end up in a race like the Welsh National. Whilst this is a starting point for both it should be a nice seasonal return and I would be surprised if one of them isn’t winning this race.
*Prices subject to change
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