Jump racing ~ Thursday 26th July

[Stevet1859]

5:10 Uttoxeter: Bedouin Bay 1pt win 25/1 Bet Victor Posted this last time Bedouin Bay was due to run at Market Rasen..... Bedouin Bay has joined Sarah Humphrey and she may be able to improve him in the short time that he transferred from Alan McCabe. His last couple of runs were a little disappointing, yet he did quite well prior to that on the all weather. Bedouin Bay has dropped to the same mark off which he won at Huntingdon over timber, and he does have a course victory here. Bedouin Bay looks to have been well placed here and jockeyship could play a part too and maybe just swing this in Bedouin Bay's favour. That was an apprentice race and this looks tougher, although not far off top rated on Racing Post ratings. Could still be worth chancing at the price.

[Edberg]

Re: Jump racing ~ Thursday 26th July 2.20 Uttoxeter WATCH AND PRAEY 3pts win @ 8/1 bog (Bet365 and Skybet) Fell in love with Richard Woollacott of late and will try to follow this very in-form young trainer in this race which looks nothing special. It's a maiden hurdle over 2m4f110y and the three market leaders and horses to beat on paper are the Gordon Elliott-trained Cosmic Wonder with AP McCoy in the saddle, the Donald McCain-trained Emrani with Jason Maguire in the saddle and the Jim Best-trained Wayward Glance with Jamie Moore on board. Cosmic Wonder collected two decent thirds in bumpers and was third also on his hurdle debut at Downpatrick over 2m7f 13 days ago. It's a horse that lacks a turn of foot and seems better suited by longer distances so this drop in trip doesn't sound very helpful and I don't like to bet on this kind of horses, let alone when it's an 11/8 shot (mainly thanks to the presence of McCoy). Emrani is a decent horse on the flat (3 wins in 14 starts and rated 73) and finished second beaten just a head at Haydock in a class 5 handicap over 1m6f on good to firm 8 weeks ago but was very disappointing on his last two starts on the flat as well on his previous ones and his two tries over hurdles in February and March 2011 were more than bad (13th of 15 115L+ behind the winner and PU). The 5yo represents a big connection (McCain-Maguire-Leslie) and was bred by the Aga Khan but for what we've seen so far it's hard to trust. Wayward Glance is the horse to beat imho as his three races over hurdles (all in maiden companies over 2m-2m1f) showed a good level of ability in this sphere and a progressive form (5th on his debut over hurdles in January, 3rd on his second out in March and 2nd 2 months ago on his latest effort over hurdles at Newton Abbot). He's rated 108 and faces for the first time this longer trip so also the Jim Best-trained 4yo, the best of this on the flat (Sadler's Wells' gelding bred by the Queen and rated up to 85 even if able to win only a maiden over 1m6f at Lingfield last August), has some big questions to answer and doesn't look a big prospect. In this contest I'm more than happy to give a chance to the representative of Richard Woollacott who is a 7yo who had just one run in PTP and won it 3 years ago and after a lot of problems came back on track 7 weeks ago at Worcester in a race which seems better than this and finished 5th of 13 missing a strong finish to challenge the first three. That was a very encouraging effort for a horse coming from such a long layoff and if able to build on that performance he could be able to go close and at current prices it's a confident shot.