Jumps Racing - Monday 28th of February

[Monterosso]

2:40 Catterick - The Red Laird - 2pts @ 8/1 (Bet365) This race lacks much strength in depth at all and I fancy Neil King's lightly raced 8 year old to add to his sole hurdle win, achieved on his penultimate start. The Red Laird scored by just over 2 lengths in a conditional jockey's race at Warwick, making all in the process. He was under pressure a fair way from home but stayed on strongly to get the better of his rivals and won a shade cosily, despite hitting the last hurdle having been set up for it all wrong. He has only raced 11 times, 7 of them being over hurdles and 4 in bumpers, one of which was a heavy ground success at Plumpton. He's ideally suited to testing conditions, which should be what he'll get here and the sharp turns and undulations of Catterick will be no problems to him. The Red Laird didn't run well last time out, but his record going right handed isn't very good and the Towcester track has proved to be his downfall on 3 occasions. He's now sent to Catterick by Neil King, which is a 400 mile round trip and the stables only runner at the course. It looks interesting that they send him here and he seems to have found another winnable race, despite being 5lbs higher than his win at Warwick. Giles Hawkins, who was on board for the first time when gaining that win, is back on board today. He's a handy 5lb claimer and this is his only ride of the day, at a track where he has 1 win and 1 third from 3 rides. He doesn't ride too often for this yard so it looks a positive booking, as Alex Merriam who usually takes the ride, is going to Plumpton to for King's other 2 runners. The King yard are in decent order, with a couple of winners in the past few days and I think it's significant that they're coming up to this track, one which they don't visit very often. The opposition, despite having 3 last time out winners, shouldn't be too much to overcome. Many are out of form, inconsistent or potentially handicapped to their abilities and I think that my selection could still have a bit more to give off a mark like this. 8/1 looks too big to me and I'd of thought he'd be closer to the market principles, around the 9/2-5/1 mark. The track is key to his chances, and it should be ideal if he gets to make the running once more, which he should. Those tactics paid dividends on his penultimate start and I'm playing small/medium stakes in the hope that they will again.

[Tedthewolf]

Re: Jumps Racing - Monday 28th of February Event 2.10 CATTERICK Selection BRIGHT SPARKY Strength 4/10 Date 28/02/2011 Bookmaker/Price Paddy Power @ 0.00 Reasoning Been in good form on the AW. Couple of years since seen over hurdles but has been given a very lenient mark. If ability is retained should go close.