Racing Chat - Monday May 8th

[BillyHills]

150 Stratford

Zipple Back NAP 2/1 Bet365
Alan King teams up with Noel Fehily here and they look the likley winners of a typical summer maiden hurdle. The 5yo Zipple Back has been placed in all four starts over hurdles and is arguably improving and slowly getting the hang of it. He has found a weak race today and should get off the mark.

[robertob]

3.40 Southwell: Class 5 Handicap, 6f

Captain Bob is a very infrequent winner, in fact his last "1" dates back to 2014. However a falling mark seems to have reinvigorate him, particularly on the All-Weather were he has been placed in all his three starts which all came earlier this year.

He also took relatively easily to the Southwell fibresand. In fact he produced a strong performance over 6f when only beaten by a head in the end. This piece of form looks rock solid and judged on it he appears now to be potentially well handicapped.

He followed up with a fine 3rd place at Brighton subsequently on fast ground over 6f but I feel it this more stamina focused test over the same trip at Southwell suits him slightly better, and probably even more so as we now know he acts on the surface and Captain Bob himself has learned how to race on fibresand. 

He's got a good draw and a red hot apprentice in the saddle, so this may represent the best chance in a very long time to finally get his head in front. 

Selection:
10pts win - Captain Bob @ 4/1 Bet365

.....

5.10 Southwell: Class 6 Handicap, 5f

This is a shockingly poor contest given an 11 year old is favourite and a 20 times maiden is thought to be closes pursuer. However it is the still winless Kodimoor who seems overpriced in this race, despite his desperate record. 

Reason to believe he can be very competitive is the fact that he dropped markedly in the weights and finished a decent third in an Apprentice Handicap over CD in January, trying fibresand for the first time. 

That form gives him a big chance of effectively 5lb less, given his mark dropped 3lb since then and the change of jockey allowance taken into account - while it is fair to say 7lb claimer David Egan is quite competent and no worse than Ms. Malune who claimed 5lb the other day.

Selection:
10pts win - Kodimoor @ 7/2 Bet365

.......

7.50 Windsor: Class 4 Handicap, 1m 2f

Lightly raced Shergiah should have more to offer now stepping up in trip after a decent comeback run at Lingfield over a mile where a sprint finish did not suit him.

However he looked quite good on his final run in 2016 when he landed a decent maiden at Ripon in impressive style, given how well he picked up once asked for full effort.

This good looking gelding has still a bit of scope to improve and in this not overly strong race he could get his season off to a flyer.

Selection:
10pts win - Shergiah @ 10/3 Paddy Power