Hello, pilgrims. The ‘county set’ , who will be parading in front of the Grandstand before the first race, have, as I said at the commencement of the week, identified a ‘live ‘un’ at Newbury, of the morrow, and it should go very close in the richest heat of the day. People, time to ‘unlock the vault’.
HAREFIELD (4.45) surpassed expectations on his debut at Exeter, last month, and ran a race full of promise as he stayed on in eyecatching fashion to finish runner-up at Exeter. He was anticipated to need the run that day and with that experience behind him can be expected to have improved considerably, and I do mean considerably. He’s been trained with this £50,000 contest in mind ever since arriving in Wiltshire and it is hoped that this long term plan will be fulfilled tomorrow.
The barn of Alan King have a great record in this heat with 3 wins in the past 10 years whilst as a 4YO who has yet to win Harefield doesn’t incur a penalty and will be receiving weight from many of his rivals. Historically being a 4YO in this race is also hugely beneficial as they have obliged in 9, I say 9, out the last 10 runnings.
There is also a rather curious back-story re this one being sold at DBS last May which highlights the unpredictability, the vagaries, the dappyness and the all-round bally bizarreness of the NH breeding industry and the prices that horses within go for. Within the space of that mentioned month Bobbi’s Venture had 2 foals sold through that sales ring our hope, Harefield, and his year older half-bro (by King’s Theatre) Minella Warrior – who had run in the pointing field, finishing 2nd . Neither had set foot on racecourse yet Harefield went for £25,000 and Minella Warrior £180,000. Who got the better deal?!? Bit early to say, for sure, but the latter finished 8th on his Bumper debut whereas Harefield was, as detailed, a highly promising runner-up. The dam, Bobbi’s Venture, is also a half-sister to Menorah so Class, with a capital ‘C’, is most deffo in the lineage, troops.
I’ve digressed from the point somewhat, in the previous paragraph, but the main thing is that Harefield should go very close at Newbury tomorrow. The slight negative is that given the size of the pot you can guarantee there will be several other ‘plots’ in the race and as we have a several unraced runners there is also no certainty that one of them won’t be ‘the latest reincarnation of Pegasus’.
Meanwhile, at a much less exalted level David O’Meara’s SCEALTARA stands out somewhat at Wolverhampton (6.45) and I think she will win on her handicap bow. 3 runs over 5-6 furlongs have seen the old girl earn a perch of 59 but I would envisage, in time, her proving much better than this whilst judging by the way she stayed on, last time out, the step up to 7 furlongs here should be a huge boon for her. Scealtara’s dam was a dual winner across the Irish Sea with a peak perch of 88 and her daughter can start climbing towards that figure with victory here.
Good luck all.
