My first DT - hoping it's a lucky one. Racing from Wolves, Chepstow and Leicester, and it's the latter meeting that interests me most. AP has four rides and I'm taking him to win on 3 of them. Irish Buccaneer in the first, To Live in the 3-15 and Thunderstorm in the last. Being McCoy mounts they are short of course, but I see a nice treble here, with Thunderstorm being the NAP Be lucky
LADY BRIDGET 3.00 Chepstow 6-1 is dropped for 4lbs for being beaten 21 L by Home Run in mid December. That puts the mare below her last winning mark on a course where she is a winner. Interesting money for Lawney Hill's QUARL EGO earlier on the card. Coming back from a long absence but had useful form early in his career. The yard do well when bringing one back, especially when the money is down.
A tentative poke (â¬3.96 e/w) in the Chepstow bumper tomorrow in the shape of Dare To Endeavour. Peter Bowen's Alflora gelding ran in 3 bumpers last season and, as you would expect from an Alflora offspring, ran much better with cut in the ground. On debut at Ffos Las on heavy (or should I say swamplike) he finished a 6L second to a Jonjo O'Neill horse and just weakened out of it in the last half furlong - a decent first run. He followed that with his best performance to date, finishing a neck 2nd to Don McCain's Sea The Fire (not run since) on soft at Uttoxeter. After looking well held by the eventual winner, Dare To Endeavour came with a rare late rattle to get within a neck at the line. His 3rd run last season was again at Uttoxeter, this time on good ground in June, and he was never going to perform on such a lively surface, coming home 6th beaten 16 lengths. I think that, with a summer on his back, he will come back a stronger horse and that, combined with his experience, should stand him in good stead here. As we saw at the weekend, Chepstow on heavy going puts a real emphasis on stamina and I think Dare To Endeavour could prove to be the only true mudlark in the field. Most interesting newcomer tomorrow is Whispering Gallery for John Ferguson - beat Opinion Poll at Meydan a couple of years ago
No bets tomorrow, the two John Ferguson horses are very interesting for the future whilst I think the Pipe horse against Thunderstruck is interesting.
Thunderstruck may well trot up but surely there is a big "bounce" possibility! Agree with the Ferguson Group horse comments, will be an interesting watch! (reminds me of a mini-convo I saw on twitter today)
One that I will put a few quid on again is SMALLJOHN in the opener at Wolves. A 7 time C/D winner this fella likes to get out and has a catch me if you can attitude. Although a couple other front runners in the field I am hoping that he can get a good break from stall 3 and lead all the way. Tissue price around 14/1 so worth an e/w dabble.
Twitter? Grecian, I took a long look at Smalljohn but couldn't back him due to yard form. Good luck with him, he could easily pop in at a good price.
A Celebrity Big Brother moment of hilarity (in my house anyway) I obviously don't watch this cack but I accidentally (cough) spotted this one. Gathered together, each with a writing board, they were each asked to nominate one person for a task. So one name on their board then - not rocket science. However the Essex girl "page 3 stunna" came out with "me minds a complete blank" Prompting the instant response from me "as opposed to what?" Unfortunately none of the others had the wit or bravery to say it. Well Billy whippet enjoyed it - although he can't compete in the knocker department he probably has a higher IQ
Trying a new system tomorrow (again). Uimhir A Seacht 1.20, Sail And Return 1.55 and Anay Turge 2.30 all Chepstow. Considering only the weight allocation, allowances and ratings. Disregarding the fact 2 haven't won over distance etc. Cannot produce worse results than I have experienced recently. Thank god for the sages of these pages, or it would be the poor hoose for me.
Today I'm fairly confident THUNDERSTORM 3.45L will deliver. I'm expecting a big run from LOULOU VITTON 3.25W and also at a fair price KYLACHYKOV should go well in the 5.25W. All top rated AppraiseForm selections. Good luck to you all.
Morning, troops. Hope everyone well. Old boy Pricewise has indeed gone for Fleminstar in his CGC write-up. He's advised him at 12's but has taken the NRNB provisio.
2.40 Leicester ARABIAN HEIGHTS looked a nailed on improver for his debut and for me looked to travel very well most of the way. Up against Whispering Gallery he is 4/1. If you can get closer to 6s I'd say he is a good value dabble
Fair action for a Tuesday, methinks, and I’ll nominate to the old regular readers: Cosmic Halo (3.55 Wolverhampton) – what a lovely name for a filly by the way. Cosmic Halo looks reasonably treated here off a perch of 65 and following her fine 3rd over course and distance on St Stephen’s Day can take this for the Fahey yard. That was, in my view, a fine performance as the winner that day has gone in again whilst the second home (Illustrious Forest) has similarly won following the 26th December contest – easily by 3 lengths to boot. That formline then looks very strong and I think it will be boosted yet further following Cosmic Halo’s run this afternoon. Good luck, people.
Morning All confined to barracks due to a nasty bout of D&V (not nice) small lucky from here and my own Marvelino @ 9/2 (GP) 15:25 HANDICAP (0-70) 5f 216yds Smalljohn @ 11/1 (GP) 14:20 HANDICAP (0-75) 7f 32yds Pending To Live @ 9/4 (GP) 15:15 NOVICE HANDICAP CHASE 2m Pending Lady Bridget @ 4/1 (GP) 15:00 HANDICAP HURDLE 2m 110yds S T A Y F R O S T Y
To Live is now 3-1 with Victor - had to increase my bets as last night I took 7-4 no BOG and I'd be raging if it won at double my odds!
I see that old boy Charlie Swan has entered the ex Mr Henderson horse Hit The Headlines in Saturday’s Lanzarote Hurdle. Ho, ho, ho, and I do mean ho, ho, ho. How much are we all chuckling at the thought of Charlie Swan possibly being able to improve an ex Mr Henderson horse!