Friday, December 21, 2007

Ascot's Long Walk hurdle

After Saturday British racing takes a well earned festive break before resuming on Boxing Day. In Ascot's Long Walk hurdle the two top rated animals have questions to answer. Hardy Eustace looked as tough as ever when winning last time and is difficult to pass, but he isn't guaranteed to stay this trip and is just over a week away from his eleventh birthday. Black Jack Ketchum looks a suspect stayer too; in addition the Jonjo O'Neill operation is noticeably out of form. Two weeks ago Nick Mordin wrote a convincing piece in The Weekender highlighting Kasbah Bliss' chance for the World hurdle at Cheltenham in March. Nick argued that the key to KB was good fast ground; he'll certainly get that here and rates a value bet at around 7/1. I'd also expect Chief Dan George to improve on his most recent run where he finished last behind Inglis Drever at Newbury; a first time visor is tried here - if that does the trick I could see him running into a place at odds of 14/1.

1 comment:

GeeDee said...

On this showing Kasbah Bliss (5/1) has a very long way to go to get anywhere near World Hurdle class, finishing a tailed off fifth; the horse was in trouble four out and never at the races.
Even more disappointing was Chief Dan George (16/1) who ran a similar to last time, failing to keep his position on the second circuit and finishing seventh of the nine runners. The horse is better than this but I'll be giving him a wide berth until improvement is shown.
The whole field gave front running Lough Derg (14/1) too much rope; Tom Scudamore rode an excellent race to take the spoils with the two joint favourtites Hardy Eustace and Black Jack Ketchum finishing second and third respectively.