7.35 Sandown
Tingo in the Tale 20/1
I like the look of David Arbuthnot's 3 year old who is pretty unexposed and if ignoring his last effort which came on barely raceable LTO I think he looks fairly overpriced at 20s. In his 6 starts to date, TITT has proved himself to be a rather useful animal and I expect there is a lot more to come. On debut back in July of last year over 7f, this gelding ran a decent enough race in which the talented Group 3 winning Crius won as he finished about 7.5L beaten back in 6th. He looked like he lacked a bit of racecourse experience and looked certain to come from that effort. On his 2nd start, TITT broke his maiden when landing a Maiden at Brighton stepped up to a mile on soft ground. Again, he looked to still be learning but he was forward enough to land this contest going away when scoring by 1.75L, with the front two pulling 5L clear of the remainder. Although the form of that race is only ok, he showed a likeable battling quality to draw clear from Sheila's Buddy when she drew back alongside.
On his 3rd start and after being assigned a handicap mark of 75, Tingo in the Tale ran a very admirable second over 1m at Newmarket on good to soft ground as he finished 1.25L behind Devdas. In a large field, he got a decent enough passage through from the back and was never nearer at the finish, demonstrating a step up in trip would suit. The form of that race is very solid, with Devdas performing well off a 6lb higher mark in better races. Moreover, the 4th Glee ran a cracker in the Tattersill Millions filly's 2YO race subsequently and the 5th Salford Art ran a very good race to beaten only 5L in a Group 1 subsequently. 3 starts back in October and upped to a mark of 78, TITT was upped to 9f on good ground at Newmarket and it was a strange performance. After travelling into the race very strongly, his stride shortened significantly and it looked as if he either didn't handle the good ground or something went wrong. Mizbah, who finished just behind Tingo in the Tale on his handicap debut and who reopposes tomorrow on 2lb worse terms, finished 3rd in this race so it clearly wasn't a true showing of his potential. This was his last start as a 2 year old and given he wasn't seen for 6 months either of my 2 theories are very possible.
Two starts back, TITT made his AW debut at Kempton where he was a massive eye catcher in my eyes over 1m on his reappearance run. In his traditional style of sitting off the pace, James Doyle brought him around the outside and under only hands and heels riding he stayed on past beaten horses to finish a 4L beaten 5th. Considering Doyle didn't go for the whip once, it looked clear to me that this was just to get a run under his belt after a long absence and he certainly appeared to have a lot of horse left under him.Furthermore, the step up in trip again looked like it would definitely benefit him. LTO Tingo in the Tale was stepped upped to 1m2f for the first time in a Class 3 event and in my eyes it looks his ideal trip. Off a mark of 78, he was very well fancied by connections as he was backed from 14/1 into 6/1 before going off 15/2 on the heavy ground at todays track but he put in an absolute shocker and I'm taking a bit of a risk ignoring this effort. On barely raceable ground, he was asked to close by James Doyle before being eased 2f out and he was nearly brought to a walk about 1.5f out. He either couldn't act on extremely heavy ground or he didn't feel right to Doyle.
Today he's again tried at the 1m2f trip at Sandown which shows that connections share my opinion that he will relish the step up in trip. He's been dropped 3lb for his last effort and he's back to the mark of 75 where he posted an excellent 2nd on handicap debut. He faces good ground tomorrow which is a slight concern as he may not have acted on it in his last start as a two year old but I think the price factors in these concerns. He's dropped back into Class 4 company today and faces some pretty unexposed rivals but he is relatively unexposed himself and I think he'll prove to be better than his current mark of 75. Jim Crowley takes the ride and he has a 22% strike rate for trainer David Arbuthnot and is riding fantastically at the moment and he is a really positive booking in my eyes. Another concern I have is that Arbuthnot's horses aren't in the best of form at present and he's actually without a flat winner since last August (since February over jumps). He was well backed LTO so connections were obviously hopeful of a big run and although he won't be a big bet from me I hope he can bounce back to form and run a very good race.
. I remember you putting him up. I was very impressed with his maiden win and he went off a very short price fav on his return. I thought he shaped as if in need of the run that day. A mark of 80 should be workable imo.
