Tuesday's Meetings Fontwell N/H 8 Races 1:00-4:45p.m. Redcar Flat 8 Races 1:10-4:55p.m. Punchestown Flat 8 Races 1:30-5:15p.m. Yarmouth Flat 7 Races 1:50-5:00p.m. Wolverhampton(E) A/W 8 Races 4:50-8:20p.m. Racecards At The Races Sporting Life Racing Post Good Luck
The Cheltenham Festival commences 6 months today then. Cor blimey how time flies - it only seems like 6 months since the '21 edition of the Cheltenham Festival. With the above in mind the question of the day must be right here, right now, what is your top Cheltenham Festival ante-post advice??? Mine would be Jonbon (Hope of Seven Barrows. Hope of the Nation. Hope. Of. The. Forum.) in the Supreme Novices Hurdle. 10/1 currently available. And re Jonbon I note that my avatar has mysteriously changed back from him to old boy Santini! Do we have gremlins in the old system??? Has old girl Polly Gundry intervened??? Has the Santini Fan Club sought vengeance??? Any clues???
Racing great Altior retires So the great Altior has now been retired, what a career, what a horse. In amassing over £1.3m in prize money, numerous Grade Ones and a 4 time consecutive winner at the Cheltenham Festival he is surely allowed to site at the very top table indeed. But how will we all remember him by...?!? From my point of view i would have to say that he was a fluent jumper, he managed his way around the course as good as anyone else, but I just don't get the total excitement that other race goers have over him. I can only put it down to the way De Boinville rode him and the last few races that are stuck in my mind of him, namely that Ascot race in which Cyrname beat him in. The quote from the owners say that 'they would like him to retire while still at his peak, fit, sound and healthy and ready for a new career.' which for an 11 going 12 year old is fine. And they can rest easy that all of their memories will be of the 19 unbeaten winning race sequence, the back-2-back Champion Chase wins and a whole host of other victories which will stand the test of time. I don't know, am I being too harsh on this wonderful horse just because of Nico & Hendo's handling of him at the end, maybe. But ultimately he was a class horse that won a hell of a lot... May Mick Fitz feed him all the carrots he bloomin well wants...!!!
World Famous is favourite for the 2.00 Punchestown but the Joseph O'Brien colt's 4th placing on debut has not worked out well so far, with runner up Chicago Soldier beaten at odds on in a maiden next time when he could only finish 3rd. At tight enough odds, World Famous can be expected to improve but there are others who could also come forward and a couple of interesting newcomers. Changing Of The Guard was 4th on debut but failed to build on that as favourite for the race today's favourite ran in. He finished one place back in 5th and you would feel Joseph's colt is likely to improve more on just his second start. Yashin has run once and been 4th to Bluegrass. He was seven lengths back that day though and that tempers enthusiasm for all that the Churchill colt is likely to improve and the Harrington stable is going as well as it has thus far on 23% winners. Believe In Science ran well when second on debut but ran a howler when 9th next time. I couldn't be with him after that bad run and Jim Bolger has sort of revert to type after high level success with Poetic Flare and Mac Swiney earlier in the season. The newcomers are headed by River Thames, who is second favourite in most lists. A reasonably expensive son of Churchill out of Where's Sue, the dam was lightly raced and rated 71. The only other foal of Where's Sue was fairly moderate. It catches the eye that the money is for River Thames, when Seamie Heffernan is on Changing The Guard. Wayne Lordan gets the leg up on River Thames. Another Churchill colt is Fearless Futures, trained by Joseph O'Brien. He is out of Maureen who was decent for Richard Hannon and she won the Fred Darling back in 2013. Looking at them overall I am drawn to River Thames having entries in the Royal Lodge, Beresford and Futurity. That would suggest he is well thought of. World Famous sets a reasonable level but at this stage of the season we sometimes start to see horses who are debuting with a view to have a race or two before being put away with a 3YO career in mind. I took the chance that River Thames may have a bit of talent in a race where a touch of class may suffice. 2.00 Punchestown River Thames 9/2
Very satisfactory debut from River Thames today. He will need to come on a ton for it to be a realistic contender in his fancy race entries but nice enough start. Regular readers may have remembered that I was on Alizarine on her debut. She was backed from 10/1 to 9/2 but was never involved. Back out today and without my money burdening her she won at 7/1.
He won one of the best Supreme Novices Hurdles ever run in devastating fashion. I wish they had kept him over hurdles but there you go.
Quite a taking debut from Light Infantry at Yarmouth. It was a race where I wanted to take the favourite Ideal Guest on, based on the fact that he had an official rating of 73 after four starts. In the end I didn't play but Light Infantry tore his field a collective new one in winning by six and a half lengths. The son of Fast Company was green early but came there going well with 2F to go. Taking the lead in the final furlong he quickened away in grand style. Early days with him but the trainer could do with something to cheer him up after a low key season. Ideal Guest ran like a short runner today, fading after showing decent early pace.
A bit 'racing purist' (cor blimey remember them?!?) there, old boy. I will never understand why the Pugh's ran Altior in the 'Arkle' rather than the 'Champion Hurdle' back in '17. The latter was an incredibly weak race that year and, in my view, Altior would have romped home and now be viewed as a racing immortal with both Champion Hurdle and Champion Chase wins on his CV. Amazing to think that he was probably the star turn at the '17 Cheltenham Festival and he contested such a 'lesser' race as the Arkle rather than one of the true Championship heats. I wouldn't be saying any of this if Altior was merely 'very good' over hurdles but he was a lot, lot, lot better than this, in that sphere, so to me it was a very daft option to go for the Arkle. Not that our very own Lieutenant had much to moan about as he still achieved the 1-2 in the 2017 Champion Hurdle.
