I love this meeting. After a couple of weeks of very indifferent fare it's always a smashing curtain raiser to the Cheltenham Festival with a super competitive handicap and all the bonus money that comes with it and a mares bumper that always produces some animals to follow. OFF THE GROUND 2.05 10-1 ran a belter over a course and distance last time when beating Tante Sisse. Still more to come and I have it on good authority that the yard fully expect to be somewhere close at the finish. While others have been studying next week I have been trawling through the Imperail Cup field. It's a race I like to solve. This is usually won by a horse that still has bags of improvement to come, sorry if that sounds obvious, rather than the seasoned handicappers or horses dropping down the handicap. More often than not they are weighted under 10 stone too. Its a rather boring choice but my idea of the winner is TED SPREAD 4-1 who I feel has by far the most amount of scope to come over hurdles. I will be backing him with Bet365 in the hope of having a very tasty bonus bet to come on the mares bumper at 3.15 The winnings and free bet will be going on ELEVEN FIFTY NINE 3.50 6-1 sadly only 5's at Bet365. It's my view that this mare comes in to the race with the strongest credentials. She started her career with a stunning victory and her two runs since have been behind Colour Squadron and At Fishers Cross, very strong form indeed. I know a lot has been made recently of Aidan Coleman riding for the yard and I am sure that Taradrewe will not be far away but Rachel Green does get the choice of rides and I am confident that this one is the pick of the yards pair.
Interesting punt developing on SIR MATTIE 3.40 Chepstow (7's from 12's). The owners have been known to have a few quid on another one they own called Diamanpeg successfully in the past. SIR MATTIE is a ptp winner and has been well beaten in decent novice hurdles this season. First time handicapping and evidently they think they have "worked" him a reasonable mark!
Yep...just dont blow the "bank"....LOL My new tenants just gave me six months rent up front on Friday........could be tears before the end of the week!
Morning All - In case anyone like me follows Pricewise his 4 today are - Sandown 2.05 - Carrigmorna King 9/1 - Presenting Ace 14/1- Sandown 3.15 - Devil to Pay 10/1 - Ile De Rae 12/1. Obviously these prices would have gone but not too bad on 365 at the moment - good luck if you play !!!!
Hello lads. Some good action today. Haven't had a in depth perusal as yet but can pass on that I spoke to PM yesterday,joint owner of Hitchens,and they are reasonably confident that a reproduction of his last run will be good enough to lift the 1.40 in the desert.Looks a trappy enough contest to me! GL all.
Those four were being backed at 8.00PM last night, someone at the RP is on a good whack for passing on the info!
2.05 Sandown Speed Master - a very tricky opener with several very nice looking, unexposed types which I'm finding it difficult to separate so I've been boring and gone for Henderson / Geraghty 2.40 Sandown Song Sung Blue - returned from a long break last November and probably needed the run behind As De Fer over 3 miles on heavy. He was then dropped to 2 miles last time and Joe Tizzard really used his stamina to stretch them and win well. The step back up to 3 miles should suit today and, given he finished a staying on 7th behind Burton Port (beaten 10 lengths) a couple of years ago, 135 certainly looks a potentially decent mark. 3.15 Sandown Il De Re - Ian Williams' improving gelding sneaks in off 10-3 here and is definitely a horse on the upgrade. He looks best over the minimum trip with some juice (won the stayers race at Ascot's Chergar Cup meeting a couple of years ago on soft) and everything looks in his favour for a big run today. 3.50 Sandown Call Me A Star - stayed on really well to take his debut bumper at Wetherby before finding all sorts of trouble in running up the home straight on Kempton's AW track and eventually going down a neck to Midnight Minx (who was engaged in this but Honeyball relies on his other 2 entries). 4.00 Ayr Prosecco - Lucinda Russel's gelding has 3 career victories to his name and all have come at Ayr where he has a 50% strike rate. His last win was this time last year off a mark of 108 over 2 miles on soft and he has also won at Ayr on heavy. On hurdles form he has a 7lbs pull for 6.5 lengths with Nelson du Roncery but that one was arguably taking advantage of a lenient handicap mark over hurdles and looks more exposed over fences. E/W Lucky 31 on my comp picks. Best of luck everyone
Hopefully "tears of joy" Got all my big bets down early this time (been "reinvesting" winnings since christmas on Cheltenham )
ODDY; I think Midnight Minx must have had a setback as I understood they regrded her as their best mare. Support for Eleven Fifty Nine would be significant as they have the "line" on Call Me A Star! Ferguson fans note, looks like Population will skip the bumper leaving New Years Eve as his only runner!
My festival antepost portfolio is a little bare. I've only backed OTF e/w and LR to win. The events of the last two weeks have almost convinced me not to back AP prior to the festival.Every contender has two or three options with the the newly formulated races and trainers are almost intent on avoiding the clashes the public/punters want to see as well as declaring their hand at the last minute. Shame really.
Too right Oddy..I'm amazed the Pipe team are even considering the CGC with all the defections from the RSA..FL looks the only credible opponent and he has been disappointing thus far,even if the vibes from his yard are currently very positive...hope he makes it!
Cracking competitive card at Sandown today. Really looking forward to it and it will be a great warm up for the main event next week. I'll be there this afternoon, and I'll stay for the Preview Evening after racing featuring Nicholls, Henderson and McCoy. I'll try to tweet updates (assuming the internet is decent there) so follow me here if you're interested. Best of luck all.
GC looks a cert to run in the RSA I would have thought. The fact that Pipe is saying they'll decide on Monday, the same day as Kauto gets the go ahead, suggests that it is a case of Kauto in go RSA, and Kauto out go Gold Cup.
