Lavender Hill Mob (great name) makes his hurdles debut tomorrow and James Owen reckons he is better than East India Dock the current second favourite for the Triumph Hurdle
Resting up following a knee replacement surgery so have had a bit of time to survey the Cheltenham AP market. Perusing the Stayers market and can’t get away from the 50/1 being offered about Langer Dan. It makes me feel a bit dirty inside given my previous utterances on the trainer’s ‘management’ of LDs last 2 campaigns. However bad luck aside I think he’ll line up at this race, Elliott got Sire Du Berlais to win a stayers having previously won festival handicaps and LD did not disgrace himself at all in the Grade1 at Aintree last April. Yes he has to stay an extra half mile but remember folks ol boy Langer comes alive up that Cheltenham hill in the spring
Wow, "knee replacement" surgery. That sounds a very tough OP. I wish you a speedy recovery to full 'mobility' (hope that's the right word to use!), Chan, all the best!
Thanks Swanny. Yeah hopefully back to full mobility. I’ve been struggling with it for a good few years (worn out from playing too much sport) but hopefully will be back to a bit of cycling and hacking around the golf course without hobbling between shots by spring time.
Some serious horses on display lately: Sir Gino 10/11 Arkle Challenge The New Lion 10/3 Novice Hurdle Galopin Des Champs 6/4 Gold Cup That'll do for me £100 Treble returns £2,068
Good luck, Ron. I personally never back Hendo’s horses on the ante considering he can pull them out if the wind blows the wrong way on the day.
Champion Bumper Amen Kate 14/1 e/w NRNB WH and sky three places, 16/1 Lads, Coral and Unibet three places Pertemps D Art D Art 16/1 e/w NRNB sky five places, 14/1 NRNB WH four places, 20/1 bet365, Lads, Coral and Unibet four places
Triumph Hurdle Kurasso Blue 25/1 e/w WH NRNB three places, 20/1 Sky NRNB, 50/1 e/w three places bet365 and Unibet
Stayers Hurdle Lucky Place 11/1 e/w bet365 NRNB three places, 10/1 sky and WH NRNB, 14/1 PP, betfair and Coral three places
Well... the bet will probably go in the bin in two weekends time, but.... I read 2-3 months ago an interview with one of the people who buy horses in France for Willie and Gordon and when asked about one of the last horses he had bought that he liked he referred to KB and said that the idea was to send him to the DRF and then to the Triumph which surprised me a lot. So I watched his race at Auteuil four or five times, and I liked the way he did it. I've seen that the horse hasn't run any races since he was brought from France, so I thought that what Elliot saw in the stable he liked because otherwise he would have run already to put him in the Boodles. The only thing to hope for was that he had an entry for the first weekend in February at Dublin, and that happened last week (20/1 now, which is not very promising about the horse's chances). No doubt it is a very risky bet, but if you use NRNB there is no problem. Bet365 have now put him at 66/1 but not just on him but on most of the horses at the bottom of the table. This race is a crazy race, Willy De Houelle was 5/1 a couple of months ago, and now he is 66/1 for example.
Interestingly Henderson has put Lulamba in the Supreme as well as the Triumph. He ran Binocular as a 4YO in the Supreme (I remember because I backed him and he got chinned by Captain Cee Bee) but Lulamba's owner Joe Donnelly already has Salvator Mundi for the Supreme. Maybe they are running scared of Kurasso Blue?
The price of Salvator Mundi in the Supreme Hurdle baffles me. His jumping was very sketchy in his debut race. So why the short price? With novices, more often than not, they do not jump fluently for their follow up race either. I’m far more interested in one of Mullins’ other entrants for the Supreme, Final Demand. He absolutely hacked up in his first race but, given his pedigree, the bookies have him second favourite for the Albert Bartlett, and he is also entered for the Turners. He’d be my choice, wherever he runs. The other Mullins’ runner at the meeting which has caused hardly a mention is Impaire Et Passe. He’s well fancied for the Browns Advisory but also has an entry for the Arkle Chase. Given that few hurdlers had his measure over any distance, his price of 25/1 would appeal if he went for the minimum trip. He’s done nothing wrong in his first two chases, and impressed me with the way he extricated himself from a tight knit pack in a slow run race last time, but used his undoubted speed on the run in. A fast run race would certainly appeal if running in the Arkle and, apart from Sir Gino, I don’t fear anything else in the race- including his stablemate, Majborough.
I said the same on Salvator Mundi last week Tam (buggered if I can remember on which thread). It seems he will go straight to Cheltenham and sit out the DRF which seems strange to me as more race practice can only improve him. But WP Mullins has forgotten more than I will ever know about horses. The 2 Irish novice hurdlers I have been most impressed with so far are Romeo Coolio and James's Gate and I think both could be involved in the Supreme but (as I also said last week) I can see a big-priced winner popping up for a change and what about the Tizzards' Alexei? He is 2 from 2 and defied the penalty readily on his 2nd victory at Taunton. You can get 66/1 with Bet365 but he is blue elsewhere on Oddschecker this evening and generally into 33/1. Could be an interesting one.
Ryanair Heart Wood 16/1 e/w bet365 NRNB three places, 14/1 WH and sky NRNB three places, 25/1 e/w Lads, Coral, PP and betfair three places
