i've been lagging behind last couple of days so now i've caught up i thought i'd make an early thread for tomorrow on this freezing december evening. i'll leave out some toast for sunday hangovers plus a bit of left over vodka for emergencies, and a pale ale tomorrow we have jumps at leicester (due inspection as a precaution tomorrow) and fairyhouse. plus AW flat at kempton with races for NH horses. carlisle is abandoned. three G1s at fairyhouse and voler la vedette is out racing as is degigout and there's a 3m5f chase to sift through as well. g'luck all i'll put my picks separately.
ok here's my picks, as usual mostly looking for place horses, picked before looking at the odds, anything with rubbish ew odds not mentioned or removed. FAIRYHOUSE soft 1:05 zuzka 14/1 a few probably better than this one but had a recent win over longer distance sft/hvy and beat the likes of busty brown and dara tango. small field, risky pick. 1:35 degigout 11/8 really looks the likely winner, but if there remains 5 in the race i've gone for pride of the artic 14/1 ew who has 6 chases to his name and 4 of those were a win on this type of ground. further up in the betting are bucker's bridge and arvika ligeonniere who only have 1 chase to their name although the latter won his by some margin. 2:05 miss pepperpot 9/1 shortening, gone much further on sft/hvy and still does well. 3:10 3m5f i couldn't find a horse consistently used to these distances so a bit of an unknown. went for Give us a hand and Droin Toll both 12/1. Droim Toll has beaten good horses back in May over 30f, and Give us a hand has gone one place better than him in the same race this November (i.e 6th place) over 28f sft and has the benefit of ruby walsh. 2:40 voler la vedette 7/4 win, hopeful sentimental choice there but she's predictably the favourite. LEICESTER soft 1:20 i always reckon selling hurdles are especially unpredictable so i've just have one, wom 32/5 now shortening to 19/5, picked for its couple of 2nds lately, the last one being 2nd to rowlestone lad and ahead of rano pano. not many runners though so i might have stumped meself! 1:50 2m7f the betting in this is the opposite to what i expected but 2 picks: huckleberry 11/1 was shortening (now 14s i think). but lots of experience over these distances plus pulled out 4 wins back in the spring and a 5th over 30f. bit further down the betting than i expected. guydus 6/1 last run was a win over 26, was beaten by huckleberry back in the spring. odds as at midnight. after today, tomorrow's racing looks ok to me. nice winding down sunday.
Just the one for me today 1.35 Fairyhouse - ARVIKA LIGEONNIERE @ 5/2 Always looked a chaser and anything he achieved as a hurdler was a bonus. It'll be great to see him finally showing his worth and moving onwards & upwards with a victory here. Good luck all!
Stunning days racing at Fairyhouse. Don't even want to attempt to dissect it and will gladly just sit back and enjoy the great horses on show.
Lucky 31 st Punchestown: 12.35 Our Conor 1.05 Minsk 1.35 Arvika Ligeonniere 2.05 Our Girl Salley 2.40 Monksland Superb card, even though the fields for the graded races could be bigger
Got to hand it to Jezki, a really slick display and a great ride from Geraghty. That horse had tonnes of promise in bumpers but I thought never really went on last season- this season is a different story though. Smart performance, and am I right in saying could be Supreme Novice bound?
Travelled really well tracking Champagne Fever all the way round, was on the bridle when CF started to get ridden, just didn't find the response mate, Jezki came alongside strongly and dropped away in the final furlong.
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ****ing 2nd again She is getting expensive to follow ................................
Unlucky there wasn't she. Fingers crossed for a nice performance from Monksland up next. Big ask against VLV and So Young and Zaidpour, who seems to love soft ground. So Young was very unlucky not to win the Neptune in 2011, and obviously VLV ran a screamer in the World Hurdle and is one of the smartest mares in training.
