Racing Chat- Friday March 19th

[The Brigadier]

The Final Day of this year’s Festival to be run on the New course and unless the Clerk of the course decides to throw some water on the track (I wouldn’t be surprised!) then we should be looking at racing on genuinely good ground.

 

1.20

Gone are the days of the 30 runner Triumph Hurdles with the Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle taking away a lot of the ‘lesser’ candidates but despite only 8 runners we do have a potential cracker on our hands here. Current favourite Zanahiyr has been very impressive in winning all 3 of his starts in Ireland on soft ground, with a particularly fast time at Leopardstown over Christmas (form already been franked this week) and could be very good. Two negatives against him though are possibly the drying ground and the fact that he wears a first time tongue tie. Former stable mate Quilixios has also impressed in winning all 4 of his starts although he too is yet to prove he’s as good on good ground as he is on soft. Alan King is a past master at training these juveniles and can take this with his unbeaten Tritonic. A smart flat performer who was good enough to finish runner up at Royal Ascot, he stepped up from a rather un-impressive hurdles debut at Ascot to show a sparkling turn of foot over the last at Kempton when running away with the Adonis Juvenile Hurdle. Conditions may well favour him ahead of massive danger Zanahiyr and he’s the selection.

 

TRITONIC 2 points win @ 7/2 Bet365

 

1.55

As always the County Hurdle is very competitive although between them Dan Skelton and Willie Mullins have won the last 6 renewals. Skelton relies upon novice Third Time Lucki and he should run a good race. Mullins is mob handed with 5 entries the best of which may well be the novice Ganapathi who though has only raced on very soft ground. The fancy here though (as always with the firms paying extra places) is Sneezy Foster’s Eclair De Beaufeu. He ran a stormer to finish runner up in last year’s Grand Annual over fences and dropping back to timber here can race off of a 14lb lower mark with Jack Kennedy taking over from claiming jockeys.

 

ECLAIR DE BEAUFEU 1 point EW @ 9/1 Bet365 1/4 odds 123456

 

2.30

A good turnout for this year’s Albert Bartlett Novice Hurdle (or the potato race as some call it!). The drying ground is going to be a major factor here as plenty of the leading contenders have been racing on the deep ground all winter. One exception is the Irish trained Streets Of Doyen, trained by John C McConnell at Stamullen, County Meath. He ran up a good ground four timer in the Autumn, culminating in a course and distance win in October. Given a mid season break presumably to miss the bad ground he was back for his prep race on unsuitable soft ground and over a mile too short in February. That will have teed him up nicely for this and he looks terrific each way value.

 

STREETS OF DOYEN 1 point EW @ 10/1 Bet365 1/5 1234

 

3.05

The Gold Cup features dual winner Al Boum Photo who surely is the one to beat although on official ratings he’s not that far clear of his rivals and at the prices I’ll take him on.  Henry De Bromhead has two big chances with A Plus Tard and Minella Indo. I did originally favour the latter but he’s been ridden throughout his career, including an Albert Bartlett win and RSA 2nd to Champ, by Rachael Blackmore who’s jumped ship to ride A Plus Tard and he has to be the selection here. He does have to prove his stamina over the last two furlongs but he looked good when beating Kemboy and others in the Savills Chase at Leopardstown over Christmas over 3 miles and I’ll take him to top an excellent week for De Bromhead and Blackmore.

 

A PLUS TARD 2 points win @ 10/3 Boylesports

 

3.40

This year’s Foxhunters Chase (I’m still calling it that anyway!) will be different to previous renewals with professional jockeys riding due to the ban on amateurs. The last two winners in Hazel Hill and It Came To Pass along with last years runner up Billaway make a formidable Irish challenge but this may go the Paul Nicholls trained Bob And Co who was impressive under today’s jockey Sean Bowen when blitzing his field at Haydock 27 days ago. The one unknown with him however is the ground as all his form has been on deep ground. I’ll take a chance he handles the livelier conditions and with Bowen saying in the week that he felt he needed the Haydock run and has improved since he’s the bet here. Just a word of warning though he was a bit hairy at a couple of the Haydock fences so expect the odd errant jump! His class may get him through mind.

 

BOB AND CO 1 point EW @ 6/1 Boylesports 1/5 1234

 

4.15

A new addition to the Festival is another Ireland/Willie Mullins benefit race in the Mares Chase! Ireland have 7 of the 11 runners with the 4 British runners priced  at 33/1, 33/1,33/1 & 20/1! Elimay is a confident selection to win this for Mullins and Mark Walsh. She’s won 3 of her 4 starts over fences with her only defeat coming against the smart Allaho at Thurles. She was impressive last time when comfortably beating Shattered Love who looks held now and her biggest danger is stable companion Colreevy who has to prove her effectiveness on the drying ground. Mullins has farmed the two mares hurdles races at the Festival over the past decade and I expect the same scenario with this new race.

 

ELIMAY 3 points win @ 5/6 William Hills

 

4.50

A fiendishly hard Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys Handicap Hurdle to complete the end of a memorable Festival where we’ve seem some very smart performances.

Trainer David Pipe would love to win this race named after his father and he saddles three runners, the best of which maybe Martinhal who’s making his handicap debut and is lightly raced. The pick though is the Willie Mullins trained, Sean O’Keefe ridden 5 year old novice Galopin Des Champs who if we can believe his 9 1/4L 6th to Appreciate It and Ballyadam at Leopardstown at the Dublin Racing Festival could be well treated off of 140 on his handicap debut. An outsider that could outrun his big odds is the Nicky Henderson trained Mill Green who ran well to finish 6th last year when the standing start didn’t suit him. He’s worth a small ew saver at a big price.

 

GALOPIN DES CHAMPS 1 point EW @ 7/1 1/5 12345

MILL GREEN 1/2 point EW @ 33/1 Paddy Power 1/5 12345

 

 

[Villa Chris]

Thanks for the write ups and tips. Much appreciated .