Friday, October 26, 2018

From Ludlow to Cheltenham

Court Royale (4/1), Whin Park (6/4f) and New Agenda (6/1) ensured a successful day at Ludlow's Autumn Race Day meeting yesterday.

A colleague, clearly excited after Richard Johnson's front-running ride on New Agenda, mistakenly tore up his winning Tote ticket and was on the verge of throwing the pieces in the bin; he realised, just in time, that he was now holding a worthless piece of paper with the name Shazzamataz printed on it (fourth of the four runners in the preceding mares' novices' hurdle). Fortunately the helpful lady at the Tote window allowed him to put all the pieces of paper back together again so he could collect...

I have to make a quick observation about Pembroke House's price in the six runner 'The "A Plush Flush" Handicap Steeple Chase' at 2.45.

Going through the form the night before, Whin Park was priced up around the 7/4 mark with Pembroke House generally on offer at 5/2. I have absolutely no idea what happened during the the morning but on course Pembroke House opened at 14/1 and was steadily backed, eventually going off at 15/2. The Racing Post records 'op 8/1, tchd 7/1'.

In the event Sarah-Jayne Davies' charge was the only one to throw down a challenge to favourite Whin Park but the grey was unable to quicken coming to the last and was beaten two and a quarter lengths.

Drama at Cheltenham's first meeting of the autumn this afternoon with two separate instances of horses running out after jumping the last with a winning chance - One For Billy in the 2.35 and Oighear Dubh in the 4.55. It will be interesting to see what changes are introduced for tomorrow's card.

Here's a tentative suggestion for the first race on that card, the "Matchbook Betting Exchange" Handicap Chase at 2.00; seventeen are declared and there are several returning from a long break.

Nigel Twiston-Davies is known to target this meet while the David Pipe trained Dell' Arca has run well here in the past and may have a fitness edge after a noteworthy effort finishing fourth in the Kerry National last month.

I can't help but feel there should be more to come from West Approach and Doing Fine is one I have time for but I'm going to take a small each-way interest in Relentless Dreamer who finished fourth in the bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown in April and then third in the listed Marston's Pedigree Summer Cup at Uttoxeter in July. Sky Bet and William Hill are both paying one fifth the odds six places and at the time of writing William Hill offers 14/1.
   

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well done on a cracking effort at Ludlow and good luck with today’s selection and the rest of 2018/2019 season!

Domesday Book scored well on my system but finishing pulled up on his sole run since winning the 2017 Kim Muir tempered enthusiasm so, even at odds of 40/1, I was prepared to pass him over.

However, whilst it is entirely possible this race is simply a stepping stone to get Domesday Book back on course, the booking of Wayne Hutchinson has intrigued me.

The obvious ‘go to’ Jockey would appear to be Ciaran Gethings who is riding Theclockisticking for the yard in a later race on the card.

So why book Wayne and why would Wanye take the ride? Being a relentless dreamer perhaps I’ll take a small interest after all just in case!

TW

GeeDee said...

Interesting observations about the jockey booking for Domesday Book, TW. Good luck with your selection - and for the forthcoming season too!

Anonymous said...

An excellent start to the blog for the new season...well done!

TW

GeeDee said...

Well, following three winners at Ludlow on Thursday I certainly didn't expect to be on the winner of a sixteen runner Saturday handicap chase at Cheltenham (Minella Rocco was the absentee).

Adam Wedge rode a quiet race in midfield aboard Relentless Dreamer (16/1) before starting to creep into contention from four out. Approaching the last long-time leader Cogry (7/1jf) was clearly the main threat; Cogry jumped that final flight better than the selection but Relentless Dreamer stayed on dourly up the hill to pass the post a neck in front of the Twiston-Davies inmate with Western Approach (9/1) a further 11 lengths adrift in third and Callet Mad (7/1jf) fourth.

For the sake of clarity I should like to point out that on all known previous form the next winner will be due sometime mid February...